Zechariah 11:13

(Verse 12, 13.) And I said to them: If it is good in your eyes, give me my reward, and if not, stop; and they gave me my reward, thirty pieces of silver. And the Lord said to me, Throw them (Vulgate: it) to the potter, a handsome price at which I was appraised by them: and I took the thirty pieces of silver, and threw them into the house of the Lord to the potter. LXX: And I will say to them: If it is good in your sight, give those who determine my reward, or refuse.

Cast them to the potter - Or rather, cast them into the house of the Lord for the potter; all which the Jewish rulers acted over. Then - So soon as I saw what value they put upon me. I cut asunder - Christ did it really, the prophet did it in the type.

And the Lord said unto me,....

And the Lord said unto me, Cast it unto the potter - Jehovah calls the price of his prophet his own price; and commands that it should not be accepted, but given to a potter, to foreshadow the transaction related Mat 27:7. “Earthen vessels were used in the temple; and we may suppose that some Levites were employed within the sacred precincts to furnish them. To these, the humblest of his ministers in the temple, God commands that the degrading price should be cast.” This is the substance of the notes on these two verses, given by Abp. Newcome. We may look at it in another light, Give me my price! הבו שכרי habu sichri, bring my price, or give him any price; that is, Give the money to Judas which you have agreed to give him; for he can neither betray me nor you crucify me, but my own permission. But if not, forbear; take time to consider this bloody business, and in time forbear. For though I permit you to do it, yet remember that the permission does not necessitate you to do it; and the salvation of the world may be effected without this treachery and murder. See my notes on this place, Mat 27:9, where I have examined the evidence for the reading of “Zechariah the prophet,” instead of “Jeremiah.”

And the Lord said unto me, Cast it - As a thing vile and rejected, as torn flesh was to be cast to dogs Exo 22:31, or a corpse was cast unburied Isa 14:19; Isa 34:3; Jer 14:16; Jer 22:19; Jer 26:23; Jer 36:30, or the dead body of Absalom was cast into the pit 2Sa 18:17, or the dust of the idolaltars into the brook Kedron by Josiah 2Ki 23:12, or the idols to the moles and the bats (Isa 2:20, add Eze 20:8); or Judah and Israel from the face of God 2Ki 13:23; 2Ki 17:20; 24:21; Jer 52:3 into a strange land (Deu 29:27, (28 English); Coniah and his seed, a vessel in which is no pleasure, Jer 22:28, into a land which they knew not; or the rebels against God, said, “let us cast away their cards from us” Psa 2:3; or wickedness was cast into the Ephah Zec 5:1-11:18; once it is added, “for loathing” Eze 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. Whether any portion of this was a direct symbolic action of the prophet, or whether it was a prophetic vision, in which Zechariah himself was an actor, and saw himself in the character which he described, doing what he relates, cannot now be said certainly, since God has not told us. It seems to me more probable, that these actions belonged to the vision, because in other symbolic actions of the prophets, no other actors take part; and it is to the last degree unlikely, that Zechariah, at whose preaching. […]