Zechariah 11:12–13
11:12And I said to them: If it is good in your eyes, bring me my wages. And if not, remain still. And they weighed for my wages thirty silver coins
11:13And the Lord said to me: Cast it towards the statuary, the handsome price at which I have been valued by them. And I took the thirty silver coins, and I cast them into the house of the Lord, towards the statuary
Edition mapping verified.
Editorial apparatus
Connections
2 typed links connect to this passage.
Exodus 21:32 - Thirty shekels for a servant's death
The covenant law fixes thirty shekels as the indemnity when an ox kills a servant. Zechariah's good shepherd is dismissed with the same amount. The number makes the wage an insult: the shepherd and the Lord whose flock he tends are valued at a servant's death-price.
Sources & review
- Interpretation
- allusion
- Principal basis
- Commentary
- Review status
- source checked
- scripture
Exod 21:28-32
- scripture
Zech 11:4-14
- commentary
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, New American Bible, Revised Edition
USCCB online Bible and notes
Matthew 26:14–16 - Thirty pieces to hand him over
Zechariah's rejected shepherd is valued at thirty pieces of silver. Judas asks what the priests will pay to hand Jesus over, and Matthew alone gives the same amount. Matthew 27 then returns the silver to the Temple and names the sequence as fulfillment.
Sources & review
- Interpretation
- fulfillment
- Principal basis
- Explicit New Testament application
- Review status
- source checked
- scripture
Zech 11:12-13
- scripture
Matt 26:14-16; 27:3-10
- catechism
Catholic Church, Catechism of the Catholic Church
Vatican English edition
The Catechism places the Passion within the scriptural plan of salvation. It does not expound the thirty-piece correspondence.
- catechism
Catholic Church, Catechism of the Catholic Church
Vatican English edition
The Catechism names Judas's betrayal among the forms of sin manifested in the Passion.
- commentary
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, New American Bible, Revised Edition
USCCB online Bible and notes
- church father
Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures
Catechetical Lecture 13, sections 10-11
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series II, vol. 7 (New Advent)
Cyril explicitly compares Judas's thirty-piece payment with Zechariah's shepherd oracle.
Editorial questions
Accepted with qualification · interpretive dispute
Matthew 27 attributes the fulfillment citation to Jeremiah even though the thirty pieces and Temple action most directly reproduce Zechariah 11:12-13.
Editorial response: The link records Zechariah as the direct source of the amount while the companion Jeremiah links preserve Matthew's composite field, potter, blood, and burial imagery.