Proverbs 21:18

a ransom Comp. "I have given Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee … I will give men for thee and peoples for thy life," Isaiah 43:3-4. Egypt was, so to speak, the price paid for the deliverance of Israel (Exodus 10:7; Exodus 12:29; Exodus 14:30).

The second member of the verse is better rendered, with R.V.,

And the treacherous cometh in the stead of the upright. Comp. Proverbs 11:8.