Yahweh has made everything for its own end — yes, even the wicked for the day of evil.
Parallel translations
- KJV The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, 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.
- ESV The LORD has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble.
- 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 quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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 knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment;
- Isa 43:21the people which I formed for myself, that they might declare my praise.
- Rom 9:22What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath made for destruction,
- Isa 43:7everyone who is called by my name, and whom I have created for my glory, whom I have formed, yes, whom I have made.’”
- 1 Pet 2:8and, “a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.” For they stumble at the word, being disobedient, to which also they were appointed.
- Rev 4:11“Worthy are you, our Lord and God, the Holy One, to receive the glory, the honor, and the power, for you created all things, and because of your desire they existed, and were created!”
- 2 Pet 2:3In covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words: whose sentence now from of old doesn’t linger, and their destruction will not slumber.
- Job 21:30that the evil man is reserved to the day of calamity, That they are led out to the day of wrath?
- Rom 11:36For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things. To him be the 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.