The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.
Parallel translations
- WEB Yahweh has made everything for its own end — yes, even the wicked for the day of evil.
- BSB The LORD has made everything for His purpose—even the wicked for the day of disaster.
- 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 2:9The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:
- Isa 43:21This people have I formed for myself; they shall shew forth my praise.
- Rom 9:22What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:
- Isa 43:7Even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him.
- 1 Pet 2:8And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed.
- Rev 4:11Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.
- 2 Pet 2:3And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.
- Job 21:30That the wicked is reserved to the day of destruction? they shall be brought forth to the day of wrath.
- Rom 11:36For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. 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.