Zechariah 11:12

"And I said unto them, If ye think good, give me my hire; and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my hire thirty pieces of silver."

The KJV here uses the word "price" instead of hire, and that is preferable, although the word used is actually "hire."[29] Although the word in Zechariah 11:12 actually means, "advantage arising from labor, wages, only one amount is spoken of in both verses; and it is far better to honor the AV rendition, despite the fact of two different words being used. The word "price," used in the next verse clarifies what is really meant here. The word in Zechariah 11:12 literally means, "value set upon a person."[30]

"So they weighed for my hire thirty pieces of silver ..." See at the end of Zechariah 11:13 for a minute examination of the significant fulfillment of this complex prophecy. The amount of money here is very revealing. Exodus 21:32 has this:

If the ox gore a man-servant or a maid-servant, there shall be given to their master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned.

Barnes noted that this was only half the value of a freeman. "A freeman is valued, more or less, at sixty shekels, but a slave at thirty."[31] Note too, that a dead or severely-injured slave was so valued. Pusey interpreted Exodus 21:32 to mean "gored to death," affirming that the amount here was the "price of a slave gored to death."[32] This is doubtless correct and casts an extremely sinister shadow over the whole transaction. True, Jesus was not yet dead when the Pharisees determined to pay Judas exactly thirty pieces of silver; but then they fully intended to kill him as soon as possible, overlooking the parallel fact that God's law required the "ox" to be stoned after such an incident! Although the brilliant company of false shepherds who bought Jesus for thirty pieces of silver, fully determined to be the "ox" that would gore him to death, they sealed at the same time their own fate.

How unspeakably callous, cruel, and diabolical was the action of the three evil shepherds (Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herodians, jointly making up the Sanhedrin) in sentencing Christ to death (Matthew 26:3-5) without a trial or any intention at the time of ever having one, determining the Holy One to be, in their eyes, already dead, and buying him from the traitor at a price that exhibited for all ages their unspeakable wickedness!

"If ye think good ... and if not forbear ..." Haggling over the price is indicated by this. It really makes no difference whether Judas or the evil shepherds finally determined the amount, the evil shepherds certainly approved and paid for it. Nor is there any problem with the fact that in Zechariah, the type of Jesus is the one who consummates the "deal," while in the gospels it was Judas. Judas was the servant of Jesus; and the Master is credited with the deeds of his servants (John 4:1,2); and, in addition to that, on the very night of the betrayal Jesus commanded Judas, "What thou doest, do quickly" (John 13:27). All of the details of this complicated prophecy were exactly and minutely fulfilled.

"So they weighed for my hire thirty pieces of silver ..." Coinage was certainly known at the time of Christ's betrayal; but, as indicated here, the old device of weighing the amount was followed (Matthew 26:15), "And they weighed him thirty pieces of silver."