Bible Strands
Proverbs 4:16
For they cannot sleep unless they do evil; they are deprived of slumber until they make someone fall.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The wise instructor addresses a listener, commanding immediate departure from the wicked path after describing the dangers of the evil way.
The words — The Hebrew יָרֵ֑עוּ (ya.Re.'u) literally means "they do harm," combined with לֹ֣א (lo') "not" and יִֽ֭שְׁנוּ (Yish.nu) "they will sleep" to state that sleep is withheld until harm is committed.
The thread — The text connects this restless compulsion to Psalms 36:4, where one plots wickedness on his bed, and Micah 2:1, where people devise iniquity while lying down.
Why it lands — The verse requires the reader to treat the path of the wicked as an active threat that must be avoided before its compulsive pattern takes hold.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
For they sleep not, except they have done mischief; and their sleep is taken away, unless they cause some to fall.
Cross-references
- 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.
- Micah 2:1 Woe 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.
- Isaiah 57:20 But the wicked are like the storm-tossed sea, for it cannot be still, and its waves churn up mire and muck.
- 2 Peter 2:14 Their 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.
- Proverbs 1:16 For their feet run to evil, and they are swift to shed blood.
- Luke 22:66 At 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 18:28 Then 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.