Proverbs 21:18 (BSB)

The wicked become a ransom for the righteous, and the faithless for the upright.

From Proverbs 21. Also in the ESV.

Commentary on Proverbs 21:18

• Matthew Henry (Presbyterian), Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary on Proverbs 21:18: This intimates, 1. What should be done by the justice of men: The wicked, that are the troublers of a land, ought to be punished, for the preventing and turning away of those national judgments which otherwise will be inflicted and in which even the righteous are many times involved.
• John Gill (Reformed Baptist), Exposition of the Old and New Testaments on Proverbs 21:18: The wicked shall be a ransom for the righteous,.... Not to make satisfaction for them, as Christ is a ransom for his people; but as a ransom is in the room of another, so the wicked cometh in the stead of the righteous, and into the trouble he is delivered from; as Haman for Mordecai, which instance Jarchi mentions; see Pro 11:8; or when a...
• Jamieson-Fausset-Brown (Reformed), Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible on Proverbs 21:18: (Compare Pro 11:8). By suffering what they had devised for the righteous, or brought on them, the wicked became their ransom, in the usual sense of substitutes (compare Jos 7:26; Est 7:9).
• Geneva Bible Notes (Reformed), Geneva Bible Study Notes on Proverbs 21:18: The wicked [shall be] a ransom for the righteous, and the transgressor for the upright. (h) God will cause that to fall on their own heads, which they intended against the just by delivering the just, and putting the wicked in their places.