Zechariah 11:13 · Bible study
Zechariah 11:13 Commentary: Thirty Pieces, the Potter, Betrayal
Hebrew · 10 what the commentators say
Meaning in one sentence
Explore the significance of thirty pieces of silver cast to the potter in Zechariah 11:13 and its prophetic foreshadowing of Judas's betrayal of Jesus.
Research Summary
- Meaning: The thirty pieces of silver, contemptuously paid as a slave’s price, are cast to the potter in the temple, foreshadowing Judas’s betrayal and the purchase of the potter’s field.
- Key words: “Cast” (שָׁלַךְ, shalakh), throw away with contempt; “potter” (יּוֹצֵר, yotzer), lowly craftsman; “goodly price” (אֶדֶר הַיְקָר, eder hayekar), sarcastic term for a shameful sum.
- Main debate: Whether Zechariah performed this as a literal symbolic action or received it as a vision. Commentators (Barnes, Cambridge) note both possibilities, but all agree on the prophetic fulfillment in Christ.
- Theological theme: The rejection of God’s Shepherd and the sovereign redirection of that rejection for the redemption of outsiders.
- Best use: Teaching on the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy in the Passion narrative, and on the depth of God’s wounded love when His people spurn Him.
Translation Comparison
BSB Berean Standard Bible 2020
And the LORD said to me, “Throw it to the potter”—this magnificent price at which they valued me. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them to the potter in the house of the LORD.
WEB World English Bible 2000
Yahweh said to me, “Throw it to the potter—the handsome price that I was valued at by them!” I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them to the potter in Yahweh’s house.
KJV King James Version 1769
And the Lord said unto me, Cast it unto the potter: a goodly price that I was prised at of them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of the Lord.
ASV American Standard Version 1901
And Jehovah said unto me, Cast it unto the potter, the goodly price that I was prized at by them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them unto the potter, in the house of Jehovah.
YLT Young's Literal Translation 1898
And Jehovah saith unto me, `Cast it unto the potter;' the goodly price that I have been prized at by them, and I take the thirty silverlings, and cast them to the house of Jehovah, unto the potter.
Darby Darby Bible 1890
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.
Douay-Rheims Douay-Rheims Bible 1899
And the Lord said to me: Cast it to the statuary, a handsome price, that I was prized at by them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and I cast them into the house of the Lord to the statuary.
Translations in other languages (10 available)
Y díjome Jehová: Echalo al tesorero, hermoso precio con que me han apreciado. Y tomé las treinta piezas de plata, y echélas en la casa de Jehová al tesorero.
O SENHOR, pois, me disse: Lança-as ao oleiro, este belo preço que me avaliaram. E tomei as trinta moedas de prata, e as lancei na casa do SENHOR ao oleiro.
L’ Éternel me dit: Jette-le au potier, ce prix magnifique auquel ils m’ ont estimé! Et je pris les trente sicles d’ argent, et je les jetai dans la maison de l’ Éternel, pour le potier.
Und der HERR sprach zu mir: Wirf's hin, daß es dem Töpfer gegeben werde! Ei, eine treffliche Summe, der ich wert geachtet bin von ihnen! Und ich nahm die dreißig Silberlinge und warf sie ins Haus des HERRN, daß es dem Töpfer gegeben würde.
Doch de HEERE zeide tot mij: Werp ze henen voor den pottenbakker: een heerlijken prijs, dien ik waard geacht ben geweest van hen! En ik nam die dertig zilverlingen, en wierp ze in het huis des HEEREN, voor den pottenbakker.
E l’Eterno mi disse: “Gettalo per il vasaio, questo magnifico prezzo, al quale m’hanno stimato!” E io presi i trenta sicli d’argento, e li gettai nella casa dell’Eterno per il vasaio.
Zatem rzekł Pan do mnie: Porzuć je przed garncarza; zacnaż to zapłata, którąm jest od nich tak drogo oszacowany! Wziąłem tedy trzydzieści srebrników, a porzuciłem je w domu Pańskim przed garncarza.
И сказал мне Господь: брось их в церковное хранилище, - высокая цена, в какую они оценили Меня! И взял Я тридцать сребренников и бросил их в дом Господень для горшечника.
耶和華 吩咐我 說：「要把眾人 所 估定 美好 的價值 丟 給 窯戶。」我便將 這三十 塊錢，在耶和華 的殿 中丟 給 窯戶了。
And the Lord said to me, Put it into the store-house, the price at which I was valued by them. And I took the thirty shekels of silver and put them into the store-house in the house of the Lord.
Verse in Context
Original Language (Biblical Hebrew)
Old Testament · Biblical Hebrew · Zechariah 11:13
Source: STEPBible TAGNT/TEHB (CC-BY 4.0). Click or tap a morphology code to see the full parsing.
Scholars' Consensus
Commentators across traditions agree that this verse presents a symbolic act of contempt and judgment. The shepherd (representing God or His Messiah) demands wages from the flock, and they pay him thirty pieces of silver, the price of a slave (Exodus 21:32). The Lord then commands that this paltry sum be thrown to the potter. As Barnes and the Cambridge Bible note, the verb “cast” (שָׁלַךְ, shalakh) conveys violent rejection, as one throws away something worthless. The irony is thick: God calls it “the handsome price” (אֶדֶר הַיְקָר, eder hayekar, literally “the magnificence of the value”), a sarcastic description that underscores how grievously the Shepherd has been undervalued. The potter, the lowest craftsman in temple service, becomes the recipient of this money, signifying its worthlessness. Matthew 27:3, 10 records the fulfillment: Judas throws the thirty pieces into the temple, the priests buy the potter’s field, and the prophet’s words come to life.
How settled is the interpretation?
Interpretive difficulty: Medium
Main views:
- Literal symbolic action: Zechariah physically carries out the command in the temple, acting as a prophetic symbol; the historical context of his known ministry supports this.
- Prophetic vision: Barnes and others argue that the unlikely scenario and the involvement of other temple personnel suggest a visionary experience rather than a literal happening.
- Direct messianic prediction: Matthew 27:9 cites this as fulfilled in Jesus; the details (thirty pieces, potter, temple) match too precisely for coincidence, indicating divine prophecy.
What is clear: The thirty pieces of silver, the potter, and the house of the Lord all find their fulfillment in the events surrounding Judas’s betrayal and the purchase of the potter’s field for the burial of strangers.
What Scholars Agree and Debate
| Topic | Agreed | Debated |
|---|---|---|
| The thirty pieces of silver | All traditions agree this refers to the price of a slave (Exodus 21:32) and was a deliberate insult to God’s representative. | Some interpret the sum as literal silver shekels (about thirty-seven shillings); others see it as a typological number representing the complete contempt of Israel’s leaders. |
| The potter | The potter represents the lowest possible destiny for the money, a potter’s field for worthless clay. Christians see this fulfilled in the purchase of the burial field for strangers. | Jewish interpreters often read the potter as a symbol of God’s sovereignty (Jeremiah 18) rather than a direct messianic prophecy, while Christian tradition reads it as a direct prediction of Judas’s act. |
| The fulfillment in Matthew 27 | All Christians agree that Matthew 27:3, 10 sees Zechariah’s words as finding fulfillment in the events of Judas’s suicide and the purchase of the potter’s field. | The question is whether Matthew’s citation (“spoken by Jeremiah the prophet”) indicates a composite quotation from Jeremiah 18, 19 and Zechariah, or whether the reference is to a tradition now lost. Protestants and Catholics both affirm inspiration but propose different scribal explanations. |
| The location: “in the house of the LORD” | The money was cast into the temple indicating a formal, national act of rejection before God. | Some (e.g., Jamieson-Fausset-Brown) hold that the potter was literally working in the temple; others (Cambridge) say the phrase means the money was designated for him, not necessarily thrown into his hands. Both agree on the significance. |
Historical & Cultural Context
Zechariah 11:13 sits within a dramatic prophetic enactment. The prophet has been acting as a shepherd over a “flock of slaughter” (Zechariah 11:4), representing the people of Israel under oppressive rulers. He breaks his first staff, “Favor,” symbolizing the broken covenant with the nations. Then he asks the flock for his wages, a test of whether they value his care. Their response is contemptuous: they weigh out thirty shekels of silver, the legal compensation for a slave gored by an ox (Exodus 21:32).
In ancient Israel, payment was often weighed rather than counted. Thirty shekels was a trivial sum, about a year’s wage for a common laborer? No, it was a slave’s price, a deliberate insult. The temple employed potters to make vessels for sacrificial use, and their workplace was likely within the temple precincts or nearby (1 Chronicles 4:23). To cast money “to the potter in the house of the LORD” meant flinging it into the temple itself, as an act of repudiation. The potter’s connection to Jeremiah’s prophecy (Jeremiah 18, 19), where the potter’s house symbolizes God’s sovereign power over nations, tightens the link: God rejects the payment and redirects it to a potter, foreshadowing purchase of a field for burying strangers.
Textual Notes
The consulted sources note no significant textual variants in Zechariah 11:13. The Hebrew text is consistent across manuscripts. Some older translations (noted by Jamieson-Fausset-Brown) render “to the potter” as “to the treasury” (Maurer), but the standard Hebrew, supported by the Masoretic Text and the ancient versions, reads “to the potter.” The English Standard Version, New International Version, and others follow the Hebrew. The Septuagint translates יוֹצֵר (yotser) as πλαστῇ (plastē, “potter”), confirming the reading. No serious textual issue affects the meaning.
Reception History
The most significant reception of Zechariah 11:13 is its citation in Matthew 27:9, 10, where the evangelist explicitly connects it to Judas’s betrayal. This gave the verse a central place in Christian Passion theology. Early church fathers (such as Justin Martyr and Irenaeus) used it to argue that the Old Testament foretold Christ’s rejection and the Gentiles’ inclusion. Jerome noted the irony of the “goodly price” and saw in the potter a type of God’s sovereignty over human rejection. Medieval commentators, including Thomas Aquinas, read the text allegorically as the rejection of the Word by the Synagogue. During the Reformation, Calvin emphasized the divine initiative: God commands the casting of the money, showing His control even over human wickedness. In Jewish reception, the passage was often interpreted in the context of post-exilic leadership failures rather than messianically, though some medieval rabbis (e.g., Rashi) connected the shepherd to the wicked rulers of Israel. Modern critical scholarship debates whether the act was literal or visionary, but the Christian tradition has consistently seen it as a direct prophecy of Christ’s passion.
Preaching This Verse
Three-point outline
- The Insulting Wage. The flock pays the Shepherd the price of a slave. This is not ignorance but deliberate contempt. They valued the One who fed and protected them as worth less than a donkey. In our lives, we too can treat God’s gifts lightly, taking His provision while giving Him no honor.
- The Contemptuous Destination. God commands that the money be thrown to the potter. This is not a gift but a disposal. The potter works with the cheapest clay; the temple potter makes vessels for ordinary use. The money ends up exactly where it belongs, in the hands of the lowliest, buying a field for the outcast. It shows that God will not accept worship that costs us nothing (2 Samuel 24:24).
- The Sovereign Overruling. What humans intended for evil, God uses for good. The thirty pieces buy a field for strangers, fulfilling the prophet’s words and providing a burial place for Gentiles. The rejection of the Shepherd becomes the means of blessing for the outcast, a pattern that culminates in the cross.
Five-point outline
- Context: The Shepherd demands wages as a test (Zechariah 11:12).
- Response: The flock pays the price of a slave, thirty pieces of silver.
- Divine Command: Throw it to the potter in the house of the Lord.
- Irony: The “goodly price” is a sarcastic label for a shameful sum.
- Fulfillment: Judas throws the money in the temple (Matthew 27:5); the priests buy the potter’s field (Matthew 27:7).
Illustration hooks
- The undervalued gift: A child works all year to make a gift for a parent, only to have it ignored. The parent realizes only later the cost it meant to the child.
- The cheap purchase: An antique dealer finds a masterpiece covered in dust and buys it for a fraction of its real value, not realizing what it is.
- The re-purposed junk: A builder takes scrap wood from a demolition site and turns it into a beautiful table, what was thrown away becomes useful.
Questions your congregation is asking
- Why does God set a price tag on Himself in this passage? Does He need our payment?
- How can a prophecy written 500 years before Christ be so specific? Doesn’t that prove divine inspiration?
- What does this mean for me tonight? How do I value Jesus in my decisions?
Leading a Discussion
Open with: Zechariah 11:12, 13 captures a moment of heartbreak and drama. The Shepherd whom God commissioned to feed His people is paid a slave’s wage. Instead of accepting it, God says, “Throw it to the potter.” The money ends up in the temple, then buys a field for strangers. As you discuss, notice how the text mixes bitter sarcasm (“a goodly price”) with eerie precision (thirty pieces, potter’s field).
Discussion questions
- Read Zechariah 11:4, 13 aloud. What emotions do you sense in the shepherd as he asks for his wages? (v. 12)
- What does the amount “thirty pieces of silver” tell you about how the flock viewed the shepherd? Check Exodus 21:32.
- Why do you think God calls the wages “the handsome price” (v. 13)? What tone does that word carry?
- The potter was a lowly temple worker. What does it mean that the money was thrown to him “in the house of the LORD”? Why not just keep it?
- Read Matthew 27:3, 10. Which details line up with Zechariah? Which ones are different? How does Matthew see this as “fulfilled”?
- In what ways do we, like the flock, sometimes put a low value on God or His servants?
- How does God’s command to throw the money to the potter show that He is still in control, even when people reject Him?
Word Study
The key original-language words in this verse. Select any word for its full lexicon entry — meaning, every occurrence in Scripture, and related words.
Cross-References
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (TSK, public domain)
| Isaiah 53:2 | For he grew up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no good looks or majesty. When we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. |
| Isaiah 53:3 | He was despised and rejected by men, a man of suffering and acquainted with disease. He was despised as one from whom men hide their face; and we didn’t respect him. |
| Isaiah 54:7 | “For a small moment I have forsaken you, but I will gather you with great mercies. |
| Isaiah 54:10 | For the mountains may depart, and the hills be removed, but my loving kindness will not depart from you, and my covenant of peace will not be removed,” says Yahweh who has mercy on you. |
| Matthew 27:3 | Then Judas, who betrayed him, when he saw that Jesus was condemned, felt remorse, and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, |
| Matthew 27:10 | and they gave them for the potter’s field, as the Lord commanded me.” |
| Matthew 27:12 | When he was accused by the chief priests and elders, he answered nothing. |
| Acts 1:18 | Now this man obtained a field with the reward for his wickedness; and falling headlong, his body burst open and all his intestines gushed out. |
Interlinear and lexical data from STEPBible (CC BY 4.0). Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0). Commentaries are public domain.
For personal reflection
Read the devotional page — prayer, application, and "for families"
What the Commentators Say
10 public-domain commentaries, condensed into plain language.
Adam Clarke's Commentary Methodist/Wesleyan 1826
Clarke notes that Jesus says give my price to Judas meaning you may hand over the money but do not have to. He believes this permission does not force betrayal and that the world can still be saved without such murder.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible Protestant 1832
Barnes sees the command to cast the money as part of a vision showing Judas throwing away the price that bought his soul. He thinks this act was meant to show that people will be broken like a potter’s vessel. You may find hope in Christ who is truly precious despite being valued so little by others.
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges Anglican 1880
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges sees the thirty pieces of silver as ironical because they are given to a potter as if he were worthless. This shows that the true value of Jesus was not recognized by those who sold Him.
Geneva Bible Notes Reformed 1599
The Geneva Notes highlight the bitter irony in God calling thirty pieces of silver "a goodly price" — the paltry sum the people valued their Lord at. Casting it to the potter in the Lord's house shows the depth of their contempt and the dishonorable end of that payment.
Gill's Exposition of the Bible Baptist 1748
Gill stresses the bitter irony in the phrase "goodly price." The thirty pieces of silver were merely the price of a slave, a paltry sum that revealed how little the Jewish leaders valued Christ, the pearl of great price. He also notes the field bought was likely depleted clay ground, fit only for burying strangers.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Commentary Protestant 1871
Jamieson Fausset Brown notes the potter represents God’s absolute control over all things. The money is thrown into the temple potter’s shop because that is where God ultimately directs it to be used as a worthless price.
Keil & Delitzsch OT Commentary Protestant 1876
Keil and Delitzsch note that the sheep’s demand for wages is actually a way for them to show they recognize the shepherd’s service.
Lange's Commentary Reformed 1857
Lange reads this chapter as the tragic climax of Israel’s history: after all God’s patient efforts, the people deliberately reject the Good Shepherd. He stresses that the breaking of the two staves, Beauty and Bands, signified the irreversible loss of divine favor and national unity, leaving the flock to ruin.
Matthew Henry's Commentary Reformed/Presbyterian 1710
Henry notes that the prophet is shown as a picture of Christ who will feed the poor sheep. He also says that the price paid for the prophet’s service shows how little people valued God’s work.
Wesley's Explanatory Notes Methodist/Wesleyan 1754
Wesley highlights the irony that the shepherds valued the great Shepherd at such a pitiful price, barely enough for the cheapest goods. God rebukes them for esteeming Him so lowly. The Jewish rulers acted this out by casting the small payment to the potter in the Lord's house.