He
threw down the pieces of silver in the sanctuary, and departed. He went away and hanged himself. The chief priests took the pieces of silver, and said, “It’s not lawful to put them into the treasury, since it is the price of blood.” They took counsel, and bought the potter’s field with them, to bury strangers in. Therefore that field was called “The Field of Blood” to this day. Then that which was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled, saying, “They took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him upon whom a price had been set, whom some of the children of Israel priced, and they gave them for the potter’s field, as the Lord commanded me.”
Matthew 27:5-10
Matthew 27 [1.] Now when morning had come, all the chief priests and the elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death: and they bound him, and led him away, and delivered him up to Pontius Pilate, the governor. 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, saying, “I have sinned in that I betrayed innocent blood.”
But they said, “What is that to us? You see to it.”
Matthew 27 [5.] He threw down the pieces of silver in the sanctuary, and departed. He went away and hanged himself. The chief priests took the pieces of silver, and said, “It’s not lawful to put them into the treasury, since it is the price of blood.” They took counsel, and bought the potter’s field with them, to bury strangers in. Therefore that field was called “The Field of Blood” to this day. Then that which was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled, saying,
“They took the thirty pieces of silver,
the price of him upon whom a price had been set,
whom some of the children of Israel priced,
and they gave them for the potter’s field,
as the Lord commanded me.”
Matthew 27 [11.] Now Jesus stood before the governor: and the governor asked him, saying, “Are you the King of the Jews?”
Jesus said to him, “So you say.”
Meaning:
Judas had agreed to betray Jesus for money. The chief priests “weighed out for him thirty pieces of silver” (Matthew 26:15). When he saw that Jesus was condemned, he felt remorse, brought the silver back and confessed, “I have sinned in that I betrayed innocent blood” (Matthew 27:3-4). The priests coldly answered, “What is that to us? You see to it.” These verses tell what happened next to Judas and to the money.
- “He threw down the pieces of silver in the sanctuary”
Judas could not undo what he had done, and the priests would not take back the bargain. In despair he threw the coins into the temple, the place of sacrifice and forgiveness, and went out and hanged himself. Luke records in Acts that Judas “obtained a field with the reward for his wickedness, and falling headlong, his body burst open”, and that the field was called “Akeldama,” that is, “The field of blood” (Acts 1:18-19). The two accounts are often explained together: the field was bought with Judas’s money, so it could be described as his, and his body fell there after his death.
Judas and Peter both failed Jesus on the same night. Peter wept bitterly and later returned to the Lord. Judas felt remorse but did not turn to God for mercy. Paul describes the difference: “godly sorrow produces repentance to salvation, which brings no regret. But the sorrow of the world produces death” (2 Corinthians 7:10).
- “It’s not lawful to put them into the treasury”
The priests were careful about the law even while they were condemning an innocent man. They would not put blood money into the temple treasury, but they had paid it out in the first place. Jesus had warned them about this kind of religion: “You blind guides, who strain out a gnat, and swallow a camel!” (Matthew 23:24).
- “bought the potter’s field with them, to bury strangers in”
The money was used to buy a field where foreigners who died in Jerusalem, such as pilgrims at the feasts, could be buried. Tradition places this field in the Valley of Hinnom, south of the city, where potters worked and dug clay. Jeremiah had once taken a potter’s clay jar to that valley, smashed it, and declared that the people had “filled this place with the blood of innocents” (Jeremiah 19:1-4). The name “Field of Blood” remained “to this day”, a lasting reminder of the innocent blood that had been sold.
- “Then that which was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled”
The words that follow are closest to Zechariah. There the prophet, acting as a shepherd rejected by the people, was paid “thirty pieces of silver”, and the LORD said, “Throw it to the potter, the handsome price that I was valued at by them!” (Zechariah 11:12-13). Thirty shekels of silver was the compensation the law set for a slave who had been killed (Exodus 21:32). Israel had valued God’s shepherd at the price of a slave, and so they valued Jesus.
Matthew names Jeremiah because the prophecy also draws on him: the potter, the Valley of Hinnom, and above all the field Jeremiah bought with silver as a sign that God would restore the land (Jeremiah 32:6-9). It was common to name the better-known prophet when combining passages, as Mark does when he quotes Malachi and Isaiah together under Isaiah’s name (Mark 1:2). Even the betrayal money became a witness that the Scriptures were being fulfilled.
The Significance of Matthew 27:5-10
- Remorse is not enough
Judas admitted his sin, but he took his guilt to the priests and then to his own death, not to God. Feeling bad about sin does not save anyone. Forgiveness comes from turning to God, who promises mercy to all who come to him through Christ.
- Religion without mercy
The priests kept the rules about money while ignoring justice and compassion. Their answer to a sinner in despair, “What is that to us?”, is the opposite of the good shepherd who came to seek the lost. Those who lead God’s people are called to care for those who fall, not to use them and cast them aside.
Cross-References:
Zechariah 11:13: "Throw it to the potter, the handsome price that I was valued at by them!" The prophecy Matthew sees fulfilled.
Acts 1:19: "that field was called ‘Akeldama,’ that is, ‘The field of blood.’" Luke’s account of the same field.
2 Corinthians 7:10: "But the sorrow of the world produces death." The difference between remorse and repentance.
Jeremiah 32:9: "I bought the field that was in Anathoth of Hanamel my uncle’s son, and weighed him the money," Jeremiah’s field bought with silver.
Conclusion: Judas threw the thirty pieces of silver into the temple and took his own life, while the priests, careful about the law but blind to their own guilt, used the blood money to buy a potter’s field for burying strangers. Matthew sees in these events the fulfilment of Zechariah and Jeremiah: God’s shepherd was priced like a slave. The passage warns that remorse without turning to God leads to despair, and it shows that even betrayal served God’s saving plan.
PIB Scriptures are derived from the World English Bible