The LORD has made everything for His purpose—even the wicked for the day of disaster.
Parallel translations
- WEB Yahweh has made everything for its own end — yes, even the wicked for the day of evil.
- KJV The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.
- NKJV The Lord has made all for Himself, Yes, even the wicked for the day of doom.
- NASB The Lord has made everything for its own purpose, Even the wicked for the day of evil.
- NLT The Lord has made everything for his own purposes, even the wicked for a day of disaster.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God has made everything to serve His purposes, even bringing the wicked to a day of reckoning. It matters because nothing falls outside God's sovereign design and justice.
Overview
This proverb affirms God's purposeful ordering of all things toward His own ends, including the just judgment of the wicked. Faithful Christians have understood this within God's righteous sovereignty rather than as making God the author of sin; people freely choose evil yet remain accountable. The verse underscores that God's purposes will finally prevail in justice (cf. Romans 9:22).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- 2 Pet 2:9if all this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment.
- Isa 43:21The people I formed for Myself will declare My praise.
- Rom 9:22What if God, intending to show His wrath and make His power known, bore with great patience the vessels of His wrath, prepared for destruction?
- Isa 43:7everyone called by My name and created for My glory, whom I have indeed formed and made.”
- 1 Pet 2:8and, “A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.” They stumble because they disobey the word—and to this they were appointed.
- Rev 4:11“Worthy are You, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for You created all things; by Your will they exist and came to be.”
- 2 Pet 2:3In their greed, these false teachers will exploit you with deceptive words. The longstanding verdict against them remains in force, and their destruction does not sleep.
- Job 21:30Indeed, the evil man is spared from the day of calamity, delivered from the day of wrath.
- Rom 11:36For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever! Amen.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Wisdom personified, with God before creation and the agent of all things, anticipates Christ 'in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom' — the wisdom of God made flesh.
How Proverbs 16:4 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.