Proverbs 4:16

Pro 4:16 For they sleep not, except they have done mischief; and their sleep is taken away, unless they cause [some] to fall.

Ver. 16. For they sleep not.] So much are they set upon it. Or as empty stomachs can hardly sleep, so neither can graceless persons rest till gorged and glutted with the sweetmeats of sin, with the murdering morsels of mischief. The devil, their taskmaster, will not allow them time to sleep; which is very hard bondage. "They have eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease to sin." {2Pe 2:14}

Unless they cause some to fall.] Protagoras, as Plato relates, boasted of this, that whereas he had lived threescore years, forty of them he had spent in corrupting of young men that conversed with him.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Pro_4:16

Their sleep is taken away, unless they cause some to fall.

The proselytism of error

It is of the wicked that Solomon here speaks. What a restlessness does this indicate! What a zeal in a bad cause! The subject suggested by the text is the restless activity of evil men in the propagation of evil. A man is accountable for his creed as well as for his practice--accountable inasmuch as it must be through his own fault that he believes what is false just as much as it is through his own fault that he does what is wrong. This takes all force from the objection that they who sleep not except they bring over others to what themselves hold to be true are performing a duty rather than committing a sin. It would seem as though error were far more energetic than truth. Why should falsehood be thus zealous in diffusing itself? Allowing that it sets an example, allowing that it addresses a rebuke to truth, how are we to account for its being so surprisingly energetic and devoted? The holder of falsehood may make religion a matter of party. Error is that which the warmest adherent may support from pride, or jealousy, or ambition, but truth is that which can enlist these passions in none but the hypocrite. Error can work on all the corruptions of our nature, whereas truth has to hold these corruptions in check. That falsehood should have a missionary spirit follows on the fact of its being falsehood, and therefore forced to lean upon others for support. (H. Melvill, B.D.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

4:16 The wicked stay up at night to plan evil (Ps 36:4; Mic 2:1).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Meaning, that to do evil is more proper and natural to the wicked than to sleep, eat or drink.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

The reason is found in the character of sinners, whose zeal to do evil is forcibly depicted (Pro 6:4; Psa 36:5). They live by flagrant vices (Pro 1:13). Some prefer to render, "Their bread is wickedness, their drink violence" (compare Job 15:16; Job 34:7).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 16. 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 address in Virgil, to an ill-natured shepherd is well known: -

Et cum vidisti puero donata, dolebas:

Et si non aliqua nocuisses, mortuus esses.

ECLOG. iii. 14.

"When thou sawest the gifts given to the lad, thou wast distressed; and hadst thou not found some means of doing him a mischief, thou hadst died."

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(16) For they sleep not . . .—The practice of evil has become as it were a second nature to them, they cannot live without it.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

16. their sleep is taken away] Comp.:

“Ergo non aliter poterit dormire; quibusdam

Somnum rixa facit.” Juv. Sat. III. 281, 2.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For 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. Who would keep such company as these?

and their sleep is taken away, unless they cause some to fall; into the snares and traps they lay for them, or into sin and calamity by it; the former of which they endeavour by all means to draw men into, and the latter is the unavoidable consequence of it. They imitate their father the devil, both delight in sin, and in the ruin of their fellow creatures; it is a sport to thereto do mischief, and they have no pleasure without it; see Pro 11:23. What company are such!

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

They sleep not; they cannot compose themselves to sleep with quietness and satisfaction to their own minds. To fall into their own snares, either into sin or into mischief.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

16. They sleep not — A strong mode of saying they are restless to do evil. They love it more than they do their necessary sleep.

Mischief — Hardly strong enough; wickedness. Comp. Mal_2:8.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

This verse exhibits the extreme depravity and debasement into which "the wicked" (r"shaim) and "the evil" (raim) of ver. 14 have fallen. Their sins are not sins of frailty, but arise from premeditation and from their insatiable desire to commit wickedness. Sin has become to them a kind of second nature, and, unless they indulge in it, sleep is banished from their eyes. They sleep not; lo-yish"nu, future of yashan, "to fall asleep;" the future here being used for the present, as is frequently the case in the Proverbs, and denoting a permanent condition or habit. Unless they cause some to fall; i.e. "unless they have betrayed others into sin," taking the verb in an ethical sense (Zockler), or, which is preferable, owing to ver. 16 a, unless they have done them some injury (Mercerus); Vulgate, nisi supplantaverint. For the Khetib yik"shulu, kal, which would mean "unless they have stumbled or fallen," the Keri substitutes the hiph. yak"shihi "unless they have caused some to fall." The hiph. is found without any object. (as here, in 2Ch_25:8) (On the verb khasal, from which it is derived, see Pro_4:12) With the statement of the verse we may compare David"s complaint of the persistent persecution of his enemies, (Psa_59:15) "If they be not satisfied, then will they stay all night" (margin). A similar construction to the one before us occurs in Virgil: "Et si non aliqua nocuisses, mortuus esses had you not, by some means or other done him an injury, you would have died" ("Eclog.," 3:15); cf. also Juvenal: "Ergo non aliter poterit dormire; quibusdam somnum rixa facit not otherwise, would he have slept; contention to some produces sleep." Hitzig rejects vers. 16 and 17 against all manuscript authority.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For - They cannot sleep with quietness.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

they cannot sleep until they do evil

They probably could literally sleep, but the writer uses an exaggeration to express how intensely they desire to commit evil actions. (See: Hyperbole and Generalization)

they are robbed of sleep

The writer speaks of people being unable to sleep as if sleep were an object that someone stole from them. They probably could literally sleep, but the writer uses an exaggeration to express how intensely they desire to commit evil actions. AT: "they are unable to sleep" (See: Hyperbole and Generalization and Metaphor)

until they cause someone to stumble

The writer speaks of causing harm to another person as if it were causing that person to stumble. AT: "until they harm someone" (See: Metaphor)

they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence

Possible meanings are 1) this is a metaphor in which the writer speaks of these people constantly committing wickedness and violence as if they ate and drank them like one would drink bread and wine. AT: "wickedness is like the bread that they eat and violence is like the wine that they drink" or 2) these people get their food and drink by committing wickedness and violence. AT: "they eat bread that they obtain by doing wicked things and drink wine that they obtain through violence" (See: Metaphor)

translationWords

evil

stumble

bread

wine

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

For they will not sleep They are unable to sleep.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.