And I said unto them, If ye think good, give [me] my hire; and if not, forbear. And they weighed for my hire thirty silver-pieces.
A shepherd asks the flock He has fed to name His wages, and leaves the amount to them. What they weigh out — thirty pieces of silver — is the price the law set for a dead slave.
The prophet acts the scene out, but the voice asking for wages is not only his:
The Old Testament often moves like this from the prophet to Him whose messenger the prophet was. Zechariah 11 is a striking example. There Jehovah takes up the word His servant was speaking, and so plainly that He Himself says, "If you think good, give me my price; and if not, forbear."
The writers quote an older translation, which says "price" where the ESV says "wages." The speaker is Jehovah, the highest name in the Hebrew Scriptures, and that is what makes the sum so shocking:
Jehovah, or LORD, is a sacred name, never, as I have said, applied to anyone except the Most High Himself. To talk of making anyone Jehovah would be nonsense. The term is justly applied to the Lord Jesus (Isa. 6:1, compared with John 12:41)... Here Jehovah, or Jesus, was priced at thirty pieces of silver (Matt. 26:15).
He does not name a figure. He hands the whole valuation over to the people who have already refused Him:
Being thus refused, He says, "Well, what do you think me worth?" This would have been most strange, even after His rejection. "You have rejected me, I came for no other purpose, what do you think me worth? What is your judgment of the Lord?" Oh, what condemnation, while they thought they condemned Him... "I count myself nothing worth, I put no price upon myself, you can do what you please."
The figure came straight out of Israel's own law book:
Thirty pieces of silver was the price of a slave who had been killed. If the ox gores a manservant or a maidservant, the owner shall give to their master thirty shekels of silver (Exodus 21:32). Oh, what unfathomable love! The Lord from heaven became like a slave. The love He looked for He did not find. It was refused to Him, and instead He was insulted, mocked, and treated like a miserable slave.
In Matthew, Judas does the bargaining; here the shepherd says I said to them. That difference is not a mistake:
It was Judas' sin that betrayed the Lord. But Jehovah used the sin of Judas to test the chief priests, to see how they valued Christ. So, passing by the go-between, He says, "I said to them, If you think good, give me my price." They did "think good." And what was the price — the value they put on Jesus, the Son of God, their Messiah?
One writer asks why the Lord puts the question to them at all, and whose hand held the answer:
Why is the Lord shown in Zechariah as asking, "If you think good, give me my price?" Is it not because He was presented to Israel, giving them the choice as to what to do to Him? He did not fight against being delivered up... While Matthew shows the chief priests making the decision, it was really God who sovereignly worked in them to bring them to this decision. How good to know that God is in perfect control!
The price they weighed out did not leave Him unmoved:
In verse 13 the Lord breaks in with the words, "a goodly price that I was valued at by them." They reveal how deeply He felt His contemptuous rejection by "His own." "Reproach," He says in Psalm 69, "has broken my heart." So here the knowledge of the goodly price at which He was valued wounded His soul. A goodly price indeed at which to value Him who redeemed them out of Egypt, and who had now come among them as Jehovah — the Saviour!
The sale reached far past that day's business:
It was not only that the purpose of gathering the nations was postponed, but Christ also was sold to death by His own! And at what a price!... So the rejection of Jesus during His life made it impossible to gather the Gentiles. The rejection of Jesus in His death broke, for that time, all hope of gathering Israel.
The insult did not stay in the past:
It was a sober business deal, and that is where its bitter contempt lies: it was not even meant as an insult. They thought Him a wicked man, but even so, not worth more than a few shekels' reward... We often see twenty times as much offered for the capture of some common criminal. This was a long time ago. Yes, but there are millions of people around us who would not surrender even that for the possession of Christ now.
- Asked — The shepherd asks for wages and names no figure, letting those He fed set His worth.
- Answered — They weigh out thirty pieces of silver — the legal price of a dead slave (Exodus 21:32).
- Aimed — Judas struck the bargain, but the question tested the chief priests. It measured how the nation valued its Messiah.
- Felt — The One they priced was Jehovah Himself, and their valuation wounded Him.
- Asked again — The same question stands over every person who still puts a low price on Christ.
And Jehovah said unto me, Cast it unto the potter a goodly price that I was prized at by them. And I took the thirty silver-pieces, and cast them to the potter in the house of Jehovah.
Zechariah acts out a scene: the shepherd asks his employers to name his wages, and they weigh out thirty pieces of silver. The same details return at the betrayal of Jesus, so this verse raises three questions: what was He worth to them, who threw the money, and why a potter?
The shepherd sets no fee of His own. He asks them to name it.
Being refused in this way, He says, "Well, what do you think I am worth?" ... "You have rejected Me, I came for no other purpose ... What is your judgment of the Lord?" What condemnation, while they thought they were condemning Him. "If you think good, give Me My price; if not, forbear." "I count Myself as nothing worth, I put no price on Myself, you can do what you please."
The amount is not random. The law fixed it as compensation for a slave killed by someone's ox.
Thirty pieces of silver was the price of a slave who had been killed. If the ox gores a slave, male or female, the owner shall give to their master thirty shekels of silver (Exodus 21:32). Oh, what unfathomable love! The Lord from heaven became like a slave. The love He looked for He did not find. Instead they refused Him, insulted Him, mocked Him, and treated Him like a miserable slave.
ESV reads "the lordly price at which I was priced by them." Older translations, quoted below, read "a goodly price." Its place in the verse matters.
Notice in verse 13 the striking words placed between the command to "throw it to the potter" and the carrying out of that command. The Lord (speaking in Zechariah) throws in, as it were, the words, "a goodly price that I was valued at by them." They show how deeply He felt His contemptuous rejection by "His own." A goodly price indeed to put on Him who redeemed them out of Egypt, and who had now come among them as the Lord — the Saviour!
Part of the sting is that no insult was intended.
It was a sober business transaction, and that is where its bitter contempt lies — it was undesigned. They thought Him a wicked man, but even so, not worth more than a few shekels' reward... That was long ago, but there are millions of people around us who would not give up even that much to have Christ now.
The silver has two destinations: the potter, and the house of the Lord. In the Gospel account, two different people carry them out.
Judas fixed the price and got the silver. In his remorse he threw the money down in the temple before killing himself, so fulfilling the words "in the house of the Lord." The chief priests took the silver and used it to buy the potter's field, so fulfilling the words "I ... threw them ... to the potter."
Yet the verse puts the act in the first person, as the prophet's own.
Judas is the one who actually threw the money down in the house of the Lord. Even so, the matter is spoken of this way to show the humble acceptance of the Lord Jesus in being rejected, and also to stress the enormity of Israel's guilt in the blood money being displayed in the temple, the place so holy to Israel! The potter is one who has power over the clay to make one vessel for honour and another for dishonour (Romans 9:21). That reminds us of God's sovereign working with "the poor of the flock," or with people like Judas, the chief priests or Pilate. Despite their stubborn determination to do their own will, they were only tools in the hand of a sovereign God.
Matthew quotes this prophecy, but he credits Jeremiah, not Zechariah.
Unbelief tries to prove a contradiction. Faith reverently asks, and gets answers that meet the difficulties. Jeremiah is the first who speaks of the potter (compare Jeremiah 19 with Zechariah 11:13). So it is fitting that what he says about Israel's sin and their rejection, together with the burial place in the valley of Hinnom, should be joined to the detail of the buying of that burying place, as Zechariah predicted.
The price they set was not one sin among many.
It was the completion of their hostility to Christ, and the expression of their determination to secure His death at all costs. That is why, in Zechariah, this counts as their final rejection of the Messiah. It marks the breaking off, for that time, of His relationships with the Jewish nation.
- Asked — The shepherd set no fee. He left them to say what He was worth, and their answer became a verdict on them.
- Valued — Thirty shekels was the law's compensation for a dead slave (Exodus 21:32). They priced the Lord from heaven at a slave's rate.
- Felt — The words about the price He was valued at break into the command mid-sentence. They read as grief, not bookkeeping. Its contempt was undesigned, which makes it sharper.
- Fulfilled — Judas threw the silver into the temple; the priests bought the potter's field. Both halves of the verse landed exactly, through hands that never meant to obey it.
- Governed — The prophet says he took the silver and threw it, though other hands did it. The potter has power over the clay: Judas, the priests and Pilate acted freely and were still tools in a sovereign hand.