Proverbs 4:16
A plain-spoken deep dive on this verse. Read the chapter →
For they cannot sleep unless they do evil; they are deprived of slumber until they make someone fall.
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
When the things of God are to be taught precept must be upon precept, and line upon line, not only because the things themselves are of great worth and weight, but because men's minds, at the best, are unapt to admit them and commonly prejudiced against them; and therefore Solomon, in this chapter, with a great variety of expression and a pleasant powerful flood of divine eloquence, inculcates the same things that he had pressed upon us in the foregoing chapters. Here is, I. An earnest exhortation to the study of wisdom, that is, of true religion and godliness, borrowed from the good instructions which his father gave him, and enforced with many considerable arguments (Pro 4:1-13). II. A necessary caution against bad company and all fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness (Pro 4:14-19). III. Particular directions for the attaining and preserving of wisdom, and bringing forth the fruits of it (Pro 4:20-27). So plainly, so pressingly, is the case laid before us, that we shall be for ever inexcusable if we perish in our folly.
Open source ↗4:16 The wicked stay up at night to plan evil (Ps 36:4; Mic 2:1).
Open source ↗Original language
The Hebrew and Greek words behind this passage, with Strong's numbers — from openscriptures (CC BY-SA).
Cross-references
Other passages the community most often connects to this one. Tap to read.
Even on his bed he plots wickedness; he sets himself on a path that is not good; he fails to reject evil.
Woe to those who devise iniquity and plot evil on their beds! At morning’s light they accomplish it because the power is in their hands.
But the wicked are like the storm-tossed sea, for it cannot be still, and its waves churn up mire and muck.
Their eyes are full of adultery; their desire for sin is never satisfied; they seduce the unstable. They are accursed children with hearts trained in greed.
For their feet run to evil, and they are swift to shed blood.
At daybreak the council of the elders of the people, both the chief priests and scribes, met together. They led Jesus into their Sanhedrin and said,
Then they led Jesus away from Caiaphas into the Praetorium. By now it was early morning, and the Jews did not enter the Praetorium, to avoid being defiled and unable to eat the Passover.