I
said to them, “If you think it best, give me my wages; and if not, keep them.” So they weighed for my wages thirty pieces of silver. 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.
Zechariah 11:12-13
Zechariah 11 [7.] So I fed the flock of slaughter, especially the oppressed of the flock. I took for myself two staffs. The one I called “Favor”, and the other I called “Union”, and I fed the flock. I cut off the three shepherds in one month; for my soul was weary of them, and their soul also loathed me. Then I said, “I will not feed you. That which dies, let it die; and that which is to be cut off, let it be cut off; and let those who are left eat each other’s flesh.”
Zechariah 11 [10.] I took my staff Favor, and cut it apart, that I might break my covenant that I had made with all the peoples. It was broken in that day; and thus the poor of the flock that listened to me knew that it was Yahweh’s word. I said to them, “If you think it best, give me my wages; and if not, keep them.” So they weighed for my wages thirty pieces of silver. 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. Then I cut apart my other staff, even Union, that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.
Zechariah 11 [15.] Yahweh said to me, “Take for yourself yet again the equipment of a foolish shepherd. For, behold, I will raise up a shepherd in the land, who will not visit those who are cut off, neither will seek those who are scattered, nor heal that which is broken, nor feed that which is sound; but he will eat the flesh of the fat sheep, and will tear their hoofs in pieces. Woe to the worthless shepherd who leaves the flock! The sword will be on his arm, and on his right eye. His arm will be completely withered, and his right eye will be totally blinded!”
Meaning:
Zechariah prophesied to the Jews who had returned from exile in Babylon. In chapter 11 God told him to act out a parable. He was to become the shepherd of “the flock of slaughter”, a people exploited by their leaders. He took two staffs, called “Favor” and “Union”, and cared for the flock, but the people rejected him. In these verses the rejected shepherd asks for his wages, and the people show what they think he is worth. The New Testament saw this scene fulfilled in the betrayal of Jesus.
- The shepherd of the flock of slaughter
The verses before this passage (shown in the context above) explain the setting. God’s people were like sheep fattened for slaughter: their buyers killed them and went unpunished, and their own shepherds had no pity on them. Zechariah was sent to care for “the oppressed of the flock”. He removed three bad shepherds, but the people loathed him in return, and he gave up the task. He broke his staff called “Favor”, a sign that God’s protecting covenant was being withdrawn. Jesus, too, looked on the crowds with compassion, “because they were like sheep without a shepherd” (Mark 6:34), and was rejected by the leaders of his people.
- “If you think it best, give me my wages; and if not, keep them”
The shepherd ends his service and leaves it to the people to decide how much it has been worth to them. His words are not a demand but a test. The payment would reveal the value they placed on him, and through him on the God who had sent him.
- “So they weighed for my wages thirty pieces of silver”
Thirty pieces of silver was a small sum, the kind of price paid for a slave. It was an insult, meant to show contempt for the shepherd and his work.
Centuries later the chief priests agreed to pay Judas to hand Jesus over to them (Mark 14:10-11), and Matthew records that the price was thirty pieces of silver. When Judas saw that Jesus was condemned, he “felt remorse, and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders” (Matthew 27:3).
- “Throw it to the potter, the handsome price that I was valued at by them!”
God’s words are full of bitter irony. “Handsome price” means the opposite: what a pitiful sum to value him at! Notice the words “I was valued”. It is God himself who has been despised. Rejecting his shepherd meant rejecting him.
Throwing the money “to the potter” was a way of discarding it as worthless. The potter worked with cheap clay, and his workshop was a place for broken things.
- “I took the thirty pieces of silver, and threw them to the potter, in Yahweh’s house”
The silver was thrown down in the temple itself, as a witness against those who had paid it. In the Gospel accounts, the silver Judas returned ended up with the priests, and it was used to buy a field, which became known as “The field of blood” (Acts 1:18-19). The insult paid to Zechariah became a prophecy of the price set on the Son of God.
The Significance of Zechariah 11:12-13
- What is Jesus worth to us?
Judas valued Jesus at thirty pieces of silver; the woman at Bethany poured out ointment worth a year’s wages to honour him (Mark 14:3-5). Every person must answer how much Christ is worth.
- The rejected Shepherd
Zechariah also foretold, “Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered” (Zechariah 13:7). Jesus, the good shepherd, was despised and struck, yet he laid down his life for his sheep.
Cross-References:
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," The fulfilment of the shepherd’s wages.
Zechariah 13:7: "Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered;" The struck Shepherd.
John 10:11: "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep." The Shepherd who gave his life.
Conclusion: The shepherd sent by God asked the people for his wages, and they insultingly weighed out thirty pieces of silver. God told Zechariah to throw this “handsome price” to the potter in the temple, as a sign of how little they valued God himself. The same sum was paid for the betrayal of Jesus and thrown back into the temple, showing that the rejection of the Good Shepherd had been foreseen.
PIB Scriptures are derived from the World English Bible