The interpretation timeline

Prov 16:4

How this passage has been read — the sources, oldest to newest.

From the early Church Fathers to now.

Prov 16:4 · Douay-Rheims
“The Lord hath made all things for himself: the wicked also for the evil day.”
Patristic before A.D. 750
435
A.D.
John Cassian Patristic
c. A.D. 360–435
“Only God does what is good, acting from love of goodness for its own sake and not moved by fear or hope of reward. As Solomon says, "The Lord has done all things for his own sake." For the sake of his own goodness he bestows an abundance of goodness upon the worthy and the unworthy, because he can neither be wearied by wrongdoing nor provoked to painful emotion by human wickedness. He always remains what he is, perfect in goodness and unchanging in nature.”
Source
300 years pass — nothing from this stretch is hosted yet
735
A.D.
Bede Patristic
A.D. 673–735
“The Lord has made everything for its own purpose, etc. The Lord had no other cause for creating the invisible or visible creature than His will, that He might show His goodness to the rational creature, whom He would make eternally blessed: and also the one who of his own will abandoned the good of his condition, that is, the devil and his followers, He justly condemned with severity.”
Source
Modern · 1953 →

The in-app commentary runs from the Fathers to the early-modern record, then stops — that's where the public-domain sources end, not where the reading does. For the modern reading, follow the sources directly.