Is Zechariah 11:12-13 a Messianic prophecy?

“And I said to them, If ye think good, give me my hire; and if not, forbear. And they weighed for my hire thirty silver-pieces. And Jehovah said to me, Cast it to 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” (v. 12-13). This is how much they figured the shepherd of Israel to be worth! Thirty silver pieces was the value of a slave.

The next verses bring the nation again before us. "And I said unto them, If ye think good, give me my price and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver. And the Lord said unto me, Cast it unto the potter: a goodly price that I was prised at of them. And I look the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of the Lord." (vv. 12, 13.) The fulfilment of this prophecy is known to all, but we give its record in order to have the subject fully before the reader. In Matthew we read, "Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went unto the chief priests, and said unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver." (Matt. 26:14-15.) In Zechariah it is "I said unto them," whereas in Matthew it is Judas who speaks to the chief priests (the representatives of the nation). This brings out a very interesting principle in the ways of God. It was Judas' sin that betrayed the Lord, but Jehovah used the sin of Judas to test the chief priests as to their estimate of Christ, and thus, passing by the intermediate instrumentality, he says, "I said unto them, If ye think good, give me my price." They did "think good," and what was the price, the value at which they estimated Jesus, the Son of God, their Messiah? If we turn to the book of Exodus, we may read, "If the ox shall push a manservant or a maidservant; he" (that is, the owner) "shall give unto their master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned." (Ex. 21:32.) It was therefore the value of a slave; and this was the contemptuous price the Jewish leaders offered for the life of Him who was Jehovah and Immanuel. Who would have dared to think that man, and man in such a position, with such light as the word of God in his hand afforded, could have fallen so low? And who can fathom the unspeakable grace that led the only begotten of the Father, the Word Who had become flesh, Jehovah the Saviour, to submit Himself to such degradation? Ah! herein lies the revelation of man's heart, and of God's heart, and, together with it, the need — the need as displayed by the heart of man, and the secret — as disclosed by the heart of God in His ineffable grace — of redemption.

The reader will observe in verse 13 the striking words interposed between the command to "cast it unto the potter" and the execution of the thing commanded. The Lord (speaking in Zechariah) interjects, as it were, the words, "a goodly price that I was prised at of them" words which reveal how deeply He felt His contemptuous rejection by "His own," "Reproach," He says in Psalm 69, "hath broken my heart," and so here the knowledge of the goodly price at which He was "prised" wounded His soul. A goodly price indeed at which to value Him who redeemed them out of Egypt, and who had now come into their midst as Jehovah — the Saviour! Such is man; and it was by the presentation of Christ that the state of man was revealed.

The fulfilment of the second part of the prophecy is also found in Matthew: "Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that. And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself. And the chief priests took the silver pieces, and said, It is not lawful for to put them into the treasury, because it is the price of blood. And they took counsel, and bought with them the potter's field, to bury strangers in. Wherefore that field was called, The field of blood, unto this day. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was valued, whom they of the children of Israel did value; and gave them for the potter's field, as the Lord appointed me." (Matt. 27:3-10.) It will be observed again that the Lord passes over all the instrumentalities by which this prediction was accomplished. He says in Zechariah, "I" (either the Lord Himself or the prophet symbolically) "took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of the Lord." In the gospel we find that it was Judas who cast down the pieces of silver in the temple (in the house of the Lord), and that it was the chief priests who bought with them the potter's field, but as both alike were but the instruments (even while acting according to the suggestions of their own evil hearts), in the Lord's hands, both actions are here connected with the prophet.

The language of verses 10 and 11 is veiled, for we know from Matthew 27:3-10 that this prophecy was fulfilled in the sad history of Judas betraying the Lord Jesus for thirty pieces of silver, then in remorse returning to the chief priests with the money and throwing it down in the temple. With this money they bought the potter's field for a place to bury strangers.

Why is the Lord represented in Zechariah as asking, “If ye 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. They decided it was worth thirty pieces of silver, the price of a slave being gored to death by an ox (Ex. 21:32), to have Him murdered. Then in verse 13 God's sovereign word speaks, “Throw it to the potter.” While the chief priests are seen in Matthew as 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!

As to the thirty pieces of silver, Zechariah says, “I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord for the potter.” While it was Judas who actually threw the money down in the house of the Lord, the matter is spoken of in this way to show the humble acceptance of the Lord Jesus in His being rejected, and also to emphasize 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 to honor, another to dishonor (Rom. 9:21), a reminder of God's sovereign working with “the poor of the flock” or with people like Judas, the chief priests or Pilate, who, in spite of their stubborn determination to do their own will, were only tools in the hand of a sovereign God

In the following chapter there is distinct prediction of the Messiah, who would come to the poor of the flock as their Shepherd. He would be a marked contrast to the foolish shepherd or Antichrist whom the Jews would receive. The Good Shepherd would be so disdained of the nation that they would offer no more than thirty pieces of silver to secure His betrayal into their hands.

The manner of Christ’s death. We are told in Matthew 27:9, that the betrayal of Christ by Judas for thirty pieces of silver was the fulfilment of the prophecy of Jeremiah the prophet, and when we turn to Zechariah 11:12-13, five centuries before the event, we find it prophesied.

He was to be sold for thirty pieces of silver. Zechariah 11:12. Fulfilment. Matthew 26:14-15. This money was to be cast to the potter. It was to be silver and thirty pieces, and thrown down in the house of the Lord. Fulfilment. Matthew 27:3-10.

The second passage is that in Zechariah 11:12; and the Holy Ghost, in Matthew 26, quotes this as fulfilled (v. 13); "And Jehovah said unto me, A goodly price that I am prized at."

• “They weighed for My price thirty pieces of silver—a goodly price that I was prized at of them.” (Zech. 11:12-13; Matt. 26:15)

*The Godhead, the Jehovah-ship, as I may speak of Jesus, is fully set out in ver. 13. it was Jehovah who was priced at 30 pieces of silver.

A remarkable anticipation of Christ's ministry, all this is. But this being the history of the true Shepherd, the good Shepherd, at the hand of the flock, we then get the history of the flock at the hand of the foolish shepherd, the idol-shepherd. This is retribution, as many other Scriptures let us know, that the raising up of Antichrist will be in judgment upon Israel for their rejection of God's Christ, their own Messiah. This is future. See verses 15-17.*

*The foolish shepherd, thus raised up in judgment or retribution on Israel, because of their rejection of Messiah, may remind us of Saul. He treated the flock very much as this foolish shepherd is to treat them (1. Sam. 8); and he was given to the people, because they had rejected the Lord in the person of His servant Samuel; we may read Ezek. 34 in this connexion also. But I must add — that, though the good and true Shepherd was at first refused, and in retribution the foolish shepherd is to be raised up still, at the end, on the mountains of Israel, and beside the rivers of Israel, the flock shall again lie down and feed under the care of their Shepherd-king, the true David, who will guide them by the skilfulness of His hand, and feed them according to the integrity of His heart. All Scripture tells this.

• Jehovah said, "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" (Zech 11:13 ). Jesus was sold for thirty pieces of silver