No rest for the wicked Literal meaning - the wicked shall be
tormented. The phrase was originally expressed as 'no peace for
the wicked' and refers to the eternal torment of Hell that
awaited sinners. Not surprisingly, the it derives from the Bible
- Isaiah 57. The expression was first printed in English in
Miles Coverdale's Bible, 1535: 20: But the wicked are like the
raginge see, that ca not rest, whose water fometh with the myre
& grauel. 21 Eueso ye wicked haue no peace, saieth my God. The
phrase appears in print periodically of the centuries, often
with direct reference back to the biblical text. Its use in a
figurative secular sense became much more common in the 1930s
and it is now usually used for mild comic effect. The 1930s
usage picked up after 1933 when Harold Gray used the phrase as a
title for one of his highly popular Little Orphan Annie
cartoons, which was syndicated in several US newspapers. See
also: the List of Proverbs.