Proverbs 4:16
in Proverbs 4For they cannot sleep unless they do evil; they are deprived of slumber until they make someone fall.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
For they sleep not, except they do evil; And their sleep is taken away, unless they cause some to fall.
KJV
For they sleep not, except they have done mischief; and their sleep is taken away, unless they cause some to fall.
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This verse in Proverbs 4
Commentary
6 notes on this verseFor they sleep not, except they have done mischief,.... Or they cannot sleep, as Jarchi and Gersom interpret it. Oftentimes they cannot sleep on their beds for devising mischief, their thoughts are so intensely set on contriving wicked schemes; and when they have so done, they cannot sleep until they have executed them; they are continually restless and uneasy day and night, like the troubled sea, constantly casting up mire and dirt.
This site's exposition
Do not set foot on the path of the wicked
on Proverbs 4:14-17
Four short commands pile up, “Avoid it; do not travel on it” and “Turn from it and pass on by,” urging distance over argument. The wicked in view “cannot sleep unless they do evil” and “they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence”.
This site's exposition
they cannot sleep unless they do evil
Adam Clarke reads the night as the robber's working hours, when some plunder must be taken before sleep. Micah 2:1 pictures the same men plotting evil on their beds. The sweet sleep promised at 3:24 is kept from the wicked until they make someone fall.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
Let your loins be girded about. Virtue should serve as a girdle in the place where passion should be checked. One who drops off the girdle of virtue cannot overcome the vices of the body. So girded with the cincture of purity—it is the badge …
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
); they not only care not what hurt they do to those that stand in their way, but it is their business to do mischief, and their delight, purely for mischief-sake. They are continually designing and endeavouring to cause some to fall, to ruin them body and soul. Wickedness and malice are in their nature, and violence is in all their actions.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
Except they have done mischief - The night is their time for spoil and depredation. And they must gain some booty, before they go to rest. This I believe to be the meaning of the passage. I grant, also, that there may be some of so malevolent a disposition that they cannot be easy unless they can injure others, and are put to excessive pain when they perceive any man in prosperity, or receiving a kindness.
The words behind it
11 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| כִּ֤י | ki | for | H3588 → | 4482 times |
| לֹ֣א | lo' | not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| יִֽ֭שְׁנוּ | yishnu | they will sleep | H3462 → | |
| אִם־ | ʾim- | if | H518 → | 1069 times |
| לֹ֣א | lo' | not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| יָרֵ֑עוּ | yareu | they do harm | H7489 → | 107 times |
| וְֽנִגְזְלָ֥ה | venigzelah | and it is taken away | H1497 → | 30 times |
| שְׁ֝נָתָ֗ם | shenatam | sleep their | H8142 → | 23 times |
| אִם־ | ʾim- | if | H518 → | 1069 times |
| לֹ֥א | lo' | not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| יַכְשִֽׁילוּ׃ | yikhsholu | they bring injury | H3782 → | 62 times |
כִּ֤יfor
kiH3588 →4482 times
לֹ֣אnot
lo'H3808 →5168 times
יִֽ֭שְׁנוּthey will sleep
yishnuH3462 →
אִם־if
ʾim-H518 →1069 times
לֹ֣אnot
lo'H3808 →5168 times
יָרֵ֑עוּthey do harm
yareuH7489 →107 times
וְֽנִגְזְלָ֥הand it is taken away
venigzelahH1497 →30 times
שְׁ֝נָתָ֗םsleep their
shenatamH8142 →23 times
אִם־if
ʾim-H518 →1069 times
לֹ֥אnot
lo'H3808 →5168 times
יַכְשִֽׁילוּ׃they bring injury
yikhsholuH3782 →62 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Micah 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.
it leads to
- Psalms 36:4
Even on his bed he plots wickedness; he sets himself on a path that is not good; he fails to reject evil.
- Isaiah 32:7
The weapons of the scoundrel are destructive; he hatches plots to destroy the poor with lies, even when the plea of the needy is just.
- Psalms 7:14–16
Behold, the wicked man travails with evil; he conceives trouble and births falsehood.
- Hosea 7:6–7
For they prepare their heart like an oven while they lie in wait; all night their anger smolders; in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire.
- Nahum 1:11
From you, O Nineveh, comes forth a plotter of evil against the LORD, a counselor of wickedness.
- Psalms 36:4
Through
2 Peter 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.
it leads to
- 2 Peter 2:3
In 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.
- 2 Peter 2:18
With lofty but empty words, they appeal to the sensual passions of the flesh and entice those who are just escaping from others who live in error.
- Ephesians 2:3
All of us also lived among them at one time, fulfilling the cravings of our flesh and indulging its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature children of wrath.
- 2 Peter 2:3
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Proverbs
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Charles Bridges, An Exposition of the Book of Proverbs; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Peter Chrysologus, SERMON 22.