Zechariah 11:13

11:4-14 Christ came into this world for judgment to the Jewish church and nation, which were wretchedly corrupt and degenerate. Those have their minds wofully blinded, who do ill, and justify themselves in it; but God will not hold those guiltless who hold themselves so. How can we go to God to beg a blessing on unlawful methods of getting wealth, or to return thanks for success in them? There was a general decay of religion among them, and they regarded it not. The Good Shepherd would feed his flock, but his attention would chiefly be directed to the poor. As an emblem, the prophet seems to have taken two staves; Beauty, denoted the privileges of the Jewish nation, in their national covenant; the other he called Bands, denoting the harmony which hitherto united them as the flock of God. But they chose to cleave to false teachers. The carnal mind and the friendship of the world are enmity to God; and God hates all the workers of iniquity: it is easy to foresee what this will end in. The prophet demanded wages, or a reward, and received thirty pieces of silver. By Divine direction he cast it to the potter, as in disdain for the smallness of the sum. This shadowed forth the bargain of Judas to betray Christ, and the final method of applying it. Nothing ruins a people so certainly, as weakening the brotherhood among them. This follows the dissolving of the covenant between God and them: when sin abounds, love waxes cold, and civil contests follow.

And the LORD said to me, Cast it to the {q} potter: a glorious price that I was valued at by them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of the LORD. (q) Showing that it was too little to pay his wages with, which could hardly suffice to make a few tiles to cover the temple.

The Lord, God the Father, with detestation of so vile an affront and undervalue of his Son, said unto me; to Zechariah, in this theatre personating Christ sometimes. Cast it unto the potter; as being so little it would hardly purchase any thing but what was cheapest among them, a little earthenware. A goodly price that I was prized at of them: in an irony God upbraids the shepherds of his people, who prized the great Shepherd no higher. I took; Zechariah, who in this part now emblematically doth what Judas will with horror do when he hath sold innocent blood and betrayed it. Cast them to the potter in the house of the Lord; or rather, east them into the house of the Lord for the potter, all which the Jewish rulers act over in their prosecuting Christ unto death.

13 . Cast it ] “as a thing vile and rejected, as torn flesh was to be cast to dogs ( Exodus 22:31 ), or a corpse was cast unburied ( Isaiah 14:19 ), or the dead body of Absalom was cast into the pit ( 2 Samuel 18:17 ), or the dust of the idol-altars into the brook Kidron by Josiah ( 2 Kings 23:12 ), or the idols to the moles and the bats ( Isaiah 2:20 ), or Judah and Israel from the face of God into a strange land ( 2 Kings 13:23 ); Coniah and his seed, a vessel in which is no pleasure, into a land which they knew not ( Jeremiah 22:28 ), or the rebels against God said, let us cast away their cords from us ( Psalm 2:3 ), or wickedness was cast into the Ephah ( Zechariah 5:8 ); once it is added, for loathing ( Ezekiel 16:5 ).” Pusey. a goodly price ] or, the goodly price , R. V. This is, of course, ironical. to the potter in the house of the Lord ] to the potter; because his business was to make the most worthless of vessels, the last and least “to honour” of those found “in a great house” ( 2 Timothy 2:20 ), and thus the unworthiness of the “price” was shewn, as being only deserving of such a destiny. In the house of the Lord: both because He it was who, whether in the person of His servants or of His Son, was the real subject of the insulting valuation, and also because a formal and national character was given to the transaction, by its thus taking place before Jehovah and in His House.

This explanation, which seems to be the simplest and most satisfactory, of this confessedly difficult passage, does not necessarily involve the supposition that the potter was in the house of the Lord, when the pieces of silver were cast contemptuously down there. It is enough if, in the vision or symbolical action of Zechariah, they were in some way clearly declared to be for him. Like the earlier prophecy of the King ( Zechariah 9:9 ), this prophecy of the Shepherd is remarkable for its literal fulfilment. The “thirty pieces of silver” were literally the “goodly price” paid for Him, “whom they of the children of Israel did value. “The potter” was literally the recipient of it, as the purchase-money of his exhausted field for an unclean purpose ( Matthew 27:5-10 ).

13. Cast it unto the potter—proverbial: Throw it to the temple potter, the most suitable person to whom to cast the despicable sum, plying his trade as he did in the polluted valley (2Ki 23:10) of Hinnom, because it furnished him with the most suitable clay. This same valley, and the potter's shop, were made the scene of symbolic actions by Jeremiah (Jer 18:1-19:15) when prophesying of this very period of Jewish history. Zechariah connects his prophecy here with the older one of Jeremiah: showing the further application of the same divine threat against his unfaithful people in their destruction under Rome, as before in that under Nebuchadnezzar. Hence Mt 27:9, in English Version, and in the oldest authorities, quotes Zechariah's words as Jeremiah's, the latter being the original author from whom Zechariah derived the groundwork of the prophecy. Compare the parallel case of Mr 1:2, 3 in the oldest manuscripts (though not in English Version), quoting Malachi's words as those of "Isaiah," the original source of the prophecy. Compare my [1189]Introduction to Zechariah.

The "potter" is significant of God's absolute power over the clay framed by His own hands (Isa 45:9; Jer 18:6; Ro 9:20, 21). in the house of the Lord—The thirty pieces are thrown down in the temple, as the house of Jehovah, the fit place for the money of Jehovah-Messiah being deposited, in the treasury, and the very place accordingly where Judas "cast them down." The thirty pieces were cast "to the potter," because it was to him they were "appointed by the Lord" ultimately to go, as a worthless price (compare Mt 27:6, 7, 10). For "I took," "I threw," here Matthew has "they took," "they gave them"; because their (the Jews' and Judas') act was all His "appointment" (which Matthew also expresses), and therefore is here attributed to Him (compare Ac 2:23; 4:28). It is curious that some old translators translate, for "to the potter," "to the treasury" (so Maurer), agreeing with Mt 27:6. But English Version agrees better with Hebrew and Mt 27:10.

Verse 13. - The Lord said unto me. The Lord takes the insult as offered to himself in the person of his representative. Cast it unto the potter; Κάθες αὐτοὺς εἰς τὸ χωνευ τήριον , "Lay them in the foundry, and I will see if it is approved;" Vulgate; Projice illud ad statuarium ; the Syriac and Targum have, "Put it into the treasury" ( Malachi 3:10 ). This involves an alteration of the text, and is in itself an improbable reading, as God could not be made to tell the prophet to throw this despicable wage into his treasury, unless, perchance, it is said ironically. There may be an undesigned coincidence here. In Matthew 27:5 the council discuss the propriety of putting the thirty pieces of silver into the treasury. But taking our present text as genuine, commentators usually consider the phrase as a proverbial expression for contemptuous treatment; as the Greeks said, ἐς κόρακας , as the Germans say, "zum Schinder," "to the knacker," and we, "to the dogs." There is, however, no trace elsewhere of any such proverb, nor do we know how it could have arisen; it likewise does not very well suit the last clause of the verse, "I cast them to the potter in the house of the Lord." If we substitute the supposed analogous expression, "I threw them to the dogs," we see how unseemly would be the proverb in this connection. The rendering of the Jews in old time, adopted recently by Knabenbauer, "Cast them to the Creator," is considered by Dr.

Pusey to be unidiomatic, and involves great difficulties. It seems simpler to consider that the command, "cast it to the potter," implies contemptuous rejection of the sum, and at the same time intimates the ultimate destination to which, in the sight of Omniscience, it was directed. The potter is named as the workman who makes the meanest utensils out of the vilest material. That this was ordered and executed in vision is plain; how much the prophet understood we cannot tell. The ambiguous and highly typical order was explained and fulfilled to the letter by the action of Judas Iscariot, as the evangelist testifies ( Matthew 27:5-10 ). A ( the ) goodly price , etc. This is ironical, of course. Such was the price at which they estimated the good Shepherd's services. Cast them to the potter in the house of the Lord. This rejection of the paltry wage took place in the house of the Lord (in the vision), because the insult had been really offered to him, and this was the natural place where oblations would be made; thus the transaction was represented as formal and national. Whether the potter was seen in the temple we know not. The prophet was made to connect him in some way with the business; and we learn from the fulfilment that the potter did in the end receive the money, which was paid for his field applied to an unclean purpose.

And the Lord said unto me, Cast it - As a thing vile and rejected, as torn flesh was to be cast to dogs Exodus 22:31 , or a corpse was cast unburied Isaiah 14:19 ; Isaiah 34:3 ; Jeremiah 14:16 ; Jeremiah 22:19 ; Jeremiah 26:23 ; Jeremiah 36:30 , or the dead body of Absalom was cast into the pit 2 Samuel 18:17 , or the dust of the idolaltars into the brook Kedron by Josiah 2 Kings 23:12 , or the idols to the moles and the bats ( Isaiah 2:20 , add Ezekiel 20:8 ); or Judah and Israel from the face of God 2 Kings 13:23 ; 2 Kings 17:20 ; 2 Kings 24:21 ; Jeremiah 52:3 into a strange land ( Deuteronomy 29:27 , (28 English); Coniah and his seed, a vessel in which is no pleasure, Jeremiah 22:28 , into a land which they knew not; or the rebels against God, said, "let us cast away their cards from us" Psalm 2:3 ; or wickedness was cast into the Ephah Zechariah 5:1-11 :18; once it is added, "for loathing" Ezekiel 16:5 . Unto the potter - The words exactly correspond with the event, that the "thirty pieces of silver" were "cast" or flung away o; that their ultimate destination was the potter, whose field was bought with them; but that they were not cast directly to him, (which were a contemptuous act, such as would not be used whether for a gift or a purchase), but were cast to him "in the house of the Lord." They were "flung away" by the remorse of Judas, and, in God's Providence, came to the potter.