For they cannot sleep unless they do evil; they are deprived of slumber until they make someone fall.
Parallel translations
- WEB For they don’t sleep, unless they do evil. Their sleep is taken away, unless they make someone fall.
- KJV For they sleep not, except they have done mischief; and their sleep is taken away, unless they cause some to fall.
- NKJV For they do not sleep unless they have done evil; And their sleep is taken away unless they make someone fall.
- NASB For they cannot sleep unless they do evil; And they are robbed of sleep unless they make someone stumble.
- NLT For evil people can’t sleep until they’ve done their evil deed for the day. They can’t rest until they’ve caused someone to stumble.
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
The wicked cannot rest until they have done evil and made someone fall. Sin can become a restless compulsion.
Overview
So consumed are the wicked by evil that they lose sleep until they have done harm, a striking picture of sin's enslaving power. Their appetite for ruin disturbs their very rest. Scripture shows that sin masters those who serve it (John 8:34; Rom 6:16), a bondage from which only Christ frees.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Ps 36:4Even on his bed he plots wickedness; he sets himself on a path that is not good; he fails to reject evil.
- Mic 2:1Woe 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.
- Isa 57:20But the wicked are like the storm-tossed sea, for it cannot be still, and its waves churn up mire and muck.
- 2 Pet 2:14Their 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.
- Prov 1:16For their feet run to evil, and they are swift to shed blood.
- Luke 22:66At 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,
- John 18:28Then 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.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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 4:16 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.