Do not fret because of evildoers,Nor be envious of the wicked;
For there will be no prospect for the evil man;The lamp of the wicked will be put out.
Proverbs 24:19–20 · NKJVPart of Do Not Fret Over Evildoers, Proverbs 24:19–20.
Quick answer
Stop burning energy on them. The saying pairs fretting with envying, which is a sharper diagnosis than it first appears.
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This saying closes the bracket opened at 24:1–2, repeating the command against envy and adding a second verb. Putting fretting and envy in the same line is the insight, because they look like opposites. One is agitation at the wicked and the other is attraction to them, and the saying treats them as the same reflex: both are what happens when a person cannot stop watching. Psalm 37 opens with the identical pairing, almost word for word.
The answer is not that the wicked will be punished, which the saying could easily have said. It is that they have no אַחֲרִית, no latter end, the exact noun promised to the wise six verses earlier at 24:14. The section is arranged so that the two verses answer each other: one has a future, the other does not, and the difference is not in their present circumstances, which is why the present circumstances were making the reader envious in the first place. Then the lamp image closes it, the same picture 20:20 used of a man who curses his parents. A lamp going out means a house with nobody in it.
What this verse contributes
the double command, and the diagnosis that fretting and envying are one reflex.
The other half
The reason is about time rather than justice: they have no latter end. Whatever they are building runs out, and the lamp goes dark.
Related: Proverbs 24:1–2 · Proverbs 24:14 · Psalm 37:1 · Proverbs 20:20 · Proverbs 23:17–18
New King James Version®, Copyright © 1982, Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved. Full copyright information. Scripture provided by API.Bible.
Go Deeper
If this verse has been used to put weight on you that it was never carrying, ask about it directly.