“Universa propter semetipsum operatus est Dominus ; impium quoque ad diem malum.”
“The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.”
“The LORD has made everything for His purpose—even the wicked for the day of disaster.”
“Yahweh has made everything for its own end — yes, even the wicked for the day of evil.”
“Jehovah hath made everything for its own end; Yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.”
Day. His obduracy is of his own choice, and must serve to set the divine justice in the clearest light, Ecclesiasticus xxxiii. 14., and Exodus ix. 16. Others hence infer that predestination is gratuitous, and reprobation in consequence of sin. It seems rather that temporal goods and evils are here meant. (Calmet)
Note, 1. We are all apt to be partial in judging of ourselves: All the ways of a man, all his designs, all his doings, are clean in his own eyes, and he sees nothing amiss in them, nothing for which to condemn himself, or which should make his projects prove otherwise than well; and therefore he is confident of success, and that the answer of the tongue shall be according to the expectations of the heart; but there is a great deal of pollution cleaving to our ways, which we are not aware of, or do not think so ill of as we ought. 2. The judgment of God concerning us, we are sure, is according to truth: He weighs the spirits in a just and unerring balance, knows what is in us, and passes a judgment upon us accordingly, writing Tekel upon that which passed our scale with approbation—weighed in the balance and found wanting; and by his judgment we must stand or fall. He not only sees men's ways but tries their spirits, and we are as our spirits are.