Does Proverbs 16:4 teach that God made wicked people?

Proverbs 16:3-5 NKJV, (3) Commit your works to the LORD, And your thoughts will be established. (4) The LORD has made all for Himself, Yes, even the wicked for the day of doom. (5) Everyone proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD; Though they join forces,[1] none will go unpunished."

Some people have noted this proverb and suggest that God created evil, and certain people for evil as well. Notice that the tenor here seems to be that we should "commit" our works to the Lord, even the wicked will be punished, and that a "proud heart is an abomination" and that all these will not go unpunished.

The Hebrew people had a very unique and majestic style of writing. Verse four, the verse in question, is actually a an example of synthetic parallelism. This is when one line of text affirms a truth, and the subsequent line expands on it with a specific application. In this case, about the wicked, whatever disaster comes their way is an appropriate correspondent for their life.

This proverb means that God has an end, object, or purpose for everything. There is a result for every cause, a reward or punishment for every act. He has ordained a day of trouble or evil for the wicked, just as He has prepared heaven for those who love Him. The Today's Englis Version renders verse four:

“Everything the Lord has made has its destiny; and the destiny of the wicked man is destruction” (Proverbs 16:4 TEV).

Though this may be difficult to understand and accept, punishment for the unrepentant is in keeping with God’s justice.The UBS Handbook Series suggests this as an alternate reading:

"The Lord has decided how everything he created should be, and he has decided the wicked should be destroyed." (Reyburn, W. D., & Fry, E. M. (2000). A handbook on Proverbs. UBS handbook series; Helps for translators (348). New York: United Bible Societies.)

This doesn't necessarily mean that God created the "wicked" in that state. It means that the wicked have an end--punishment. Even the wicked are subservient to His eternal purposes. They are destined to experience the day of wrath and receive their well-merited punishment.

Jude 4 is another text often misunderstood. It reads:

"For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God[2] and our Lord Jesus Christ." (NKJV)

To some this says God selected these particular individuals to be doomed. But that is not the meaning. The Bible never teaches that some are chosen to be damned, that would be Calvinism. When men are saved, it is through the grace of God. But when they are lost, it is because of their own sin and disobedience. This expression teaches that the condemnation of apostates has been determined long beforehand. If men choose to fall away from the Faith, then their condemnation is the same as that of the unbelieving Israelites in the wilderness, the rebel angels, and the Sodomites. They are not foreordained to fall away, but once they do apostatize by their own choice, they face the punishment predetermined for all apostates.