Proverbs Chapter 21 verse 18 Holy Bible
The wicked is a ransom for the righteous; And the treacherous `cometh' in the stead of the upright.
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The evil-doer will be given as a price for the life of the good man, and the worker of deceit in the place of the upright.
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The wicked is a ransom for the righteous, and a treacherous [man] in the stead of the upright.
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The wicked shall be a ransom for the righteous, and the transgressor for the upright.
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read chapter 21 in WBT
The wicked is a ransom for the righteous; The treacherous for the upright.
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The wicked `is' an atonement for the righteous, And for the upright the treacherous dealer.
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Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 18. - The wicked shall be a ransom for the righteous. The same thought occurs in Proverbs 11:8 (where see note). כֹּפֶר (kopher), "price of atonement," means of reconciliation. Delitzsch instances that the great movement which gathered the nations together for the destruction of Babylon put an end to Israel's exile; and that Cyrus, the scourge of so many heathen peoples, was the liberator of the Jews (comp. Isaiah 44:28). And the transgressor for the upright. The faithless takes the place of the upright; the stroke passes over the latter, to fall on the former, as in Egypt the destroying angel spared the houses of the Israelites, and poured his wrath on the Egyptians. Septuagint, "A transgressor is the offscouring (περικάθαρμα, perhaps equivalent to 'ransom') of a righteous man."
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(18) The wicked shall be a ransom for the righteous.--The righteous is "delivered out of trouble (Proverbs 11:8; comp. Isaiah 57:1), and the wicked cometh in his stead" to receive upon his own head God's descending punishment. So it was with Mordecai and Haman.