Proverbs 21:18 - Exposition

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."