The wicked are punished in place of the godly, and traitors in place of the honest.
Parallel translations
- WEB The wicked is a ransom for the righteous; the treacherous for the upright.
- KJV The wicked shall be a ransom for the righteous, and the transgressor for the upright.
- BSB The wicked become a ransom for the righteous, and the faithless for the upright.
- NKJV The wicked shall be a ransom for the righteous, And the unfaithful for the upright.
- NASB The wicked is a ransom for the righteous, And the treacherous is in the place of the upright.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The wicked end up serving as a ransom in place of the righteous. It matters because God's justice can reverse the fortunes of evil and good.
Overview
In God's providence, the calamity the wicked plot against the righteous can fall back on themselves, sparing the upright (Proverbs 11:8; Esther 7:10). The verse expresses a principle of reversal in God's just order. It dimly anticipates the gospel's great reversal, though there the Righteous One became a ransom for the unrighteous (Mark 10:45; 1 Peter 3:18).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 5
- Prov 11:8A righteous person is delivered out of trouble, and the wicked takes his place.
- Isa 43:3–4For I am Yahweh your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I have given Egypt as your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in your place.
- Isa 53:4–5Surely he has borne our sickness, and carried our suffering; yet we considered him plagued, struck by God, and afflicted.
- 1 Pet 3:18Because Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring you to God; being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit;
- Isa 55:8–9“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not my ways,” says Yahweh.
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Wisdom personified, with God before creation and the agent of all things, anticipates Christ 'in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom' — the wisdom of God made flesh.
How Proverbs 21:18 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.