Proverbs 4:16

Verse Proverbs 4:16. 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."