Zechariah 11:12 Commentary and Bible Study

The appropriateness of this prophecy at this point becomes clear when we understand how the rejection of their Messiah was linked to the ultimate rejection of the nation and the national covenant by God. Zechariah encapsulates the contempt which the nation showed for the one sent from heaven whom they should have valued above every other. It is expressed in terms of the paltry price which Judas and the chief priests agreed to when striking their shameful bargain. Judas was ready to go ahead with this vile betrayal, and the chief priests were ready to set a price they were willing to pay to be rid of the one who had so troubled their consciences and exposed them before the people as the hypocrites they were. Yet it was the Messiah they were plotting to destroy, the one whom all the prophets had spoken of, and in whom the purposes of God were to be fulfilled. It appears that this was acted out literally by Zechariah. What am I worth? They solemnly weigh out for him 30 pieces of silver. It was the token price of a lost slave, estimated to be worth somewhere between £70 and £370. He solemnly takes it, and some say by prearrangement. It is ironically called a goodly price, a lordly or magnificent price. This was the low value that the people set on Zechariah, and which the Jewish nation set on its Messiah. Zechariah is instructed to take the price he receives and cast it in the house of the Lord to the potter. What did this mean? T V Moore comments that to cast something to the potter was a proverbial phrase like our phrase, ‘throw it to the dogs’. It came about he says because the potter for the temple had his shop in the valley of Hinnom because of the clay found there, a polluted place in the minds of the Jews because of the idolatry once practiced there. This in turn became symbolic of the events described in Matthew 27:6-8.Then finally, the second staff, Bands, or union is broken. Which union was broken: that between God and nation, or between one Jew and another? The fragmentation of Jews is an abiding sign that there is no union between them and God. The breaking of the union between Israel and Judah had taken place soon after Solomon died, but that fracture of the nation is made a picture of the ‘most terrible factions … that appeared in Judea’ (Moore). He refers us to Josephus to see the full horror of this.