For they sleep not, except they have done mischief; and their sleep is taken away, unless they cause some to fall.
Parallel translations
- WEB For they don’t sleep, unless they do evil. Their sleep is taken away, unless they make someone fall.
- BSB For they cannot sleep unless they do evil; they are deprived of slumber until they make someone 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 36:4He deviseth mischief upon his bed; he setteth himself in a way that is not good; he abhorreth not evil.
- Mic 2:1Woe to them that devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds! when the morning is light, they practise it, because it is in the power of their hand.
- Isa 57:20But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt.
- 2 Pet 2:14Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children:
- Prov 1:16For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood.
- Luke 22:66And as soon as it was day, the elders of the people and the chief priests and the scribes came together, and led him into their council, saying,
- John 18:28Then led they Jesus from Caiaphas unto the hall of judgment: and it was early; and they themselves went not into the judgment hall, lest they should be defiled; but that they might eat the passover.
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 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.