21:18

Notice the parallel parts that are similar in meaning:

18a
The wicked become a ransom for the righteous,

18b and the faithless for the upright.

There is an ellipsis in 21:18b. In some languages, it may be necessary to supply the missing phrase from 21:18a. For example:

18b and the faithless ⌊become a ransom⌋ for the upright.

The overall meaning is that wicked/faithless people suffer the punishment that they intended righteous/upright people to suffer.

21:18a–b

The wicked…the faithless: These parallel terms refer to the same group of people. The Hebrew word translated by the Berean Standard Bible as faithless describes someone who acts treacherously or breaks an agreement. See the note on 2:22a–b, where the same parallel terms occur.

the righteous…the upright: These parallel terms have almost the same meaning. Both refer to people who consistently obey the LORD and who do what is right. In this volume of Proverbs, the term upright first occurs in 11:3a. See the note there.

21:18a

become a ransom: A literal ransom is a payment that someone makes to free another person from a difficult situation. The word was used in that sense in 13:8a. Scholars agree that the word is not used in the sense of a literal payment here.

The probable context of this proverb is that wicked people try to get righteous people into trouble. It may be a situation where the righteous person will be punished if he is wrongfully convicted of a crime he did not commit. But the LORD makes sure that the wicked person is punished instead. That person suffers in place of the righteous person. Another way to translate 21:18a is:

Wicked people will suffer instead of good people (New Century Version)
-or-
The wicked are punished in place of the godly (New Living Translation (2004))

Be careful not to imply that righteous people have done something to deserve punishment.

General Comment on 21:18a–b

In some languages, it may be more natural to reorder and/or combine the parallel parts. For example:

The wicked bring on themselves the suffering they try to cause good people. (Good News Translation)

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