Proverbs 4:16

16 For they will not sleep if they have not done wrong, and they are robbed of their sleep if they do not cause stumbling.

Proverbs 4:16 Meaning and Commentary

Proverbs 4:16

For they sleep not, except they have done mischief
Or they cannot sleep, as Jarchi and Gersom interpret it. Oftentimes they cannot sleep on their beds for devising mischief, their thoughts are so intensely set on contriving wicked schemes; and when they have so done, they cannot sleep until they have executed them; they are continually restless and uneasy day and night, like the troubled sea, constantly casting up mire and dirt. Who would keep such company as these? and their sleep is taken away, unless they cause [some] to fall;
into the snares and traps they lay for them, or into sin and calamity by it; the former of which they endeavour by all means to draw men into, and the latter is the unavoidable consequence of it. They imitate their father the devil, both delight in sin, and in the ruin of their fellow creatures; it is a sport to thereto do mischief, and they have no pleasure without it; see ( Proverbs 11:23 ) . What company are such!

Proverbs 4:16 In-Context

14 In the path of the wicked do not go; do not walk in the way of those who do evil.
15 Avoid it; do not transgress it; turn away from it and pass by.
16 For they will not sleep if they have not done wrong, and they are robbed of their sleep if they do not cause stumbling.
17 For they ate the bread of wickedness, and they drank the wine of violence.
18 But the path of the righteous ones [is] like the light of dawn, leading and shining until the day {is full}.
Scripture quotations marked (LEB) are from the Lexham English Bible. Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software.