¹⁵ and asked, “How much will you pay me to betray Jesus to you?” And they gave him thirty pieces of silver.

¹² And I said to them, “If you like, give me my wages, whatever I am worth; but only if you want to.” So they counted out for my wages thirty pieces of silver.

¹³ And the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the potter^[a]”—this magnificent sum at which they valued me! So I took the thirty coins and threw them to the potter in the Temple of the Lord.

³² But if the ox gores a slave, either male or female, the animal’s owner must pay the slave’s owner thirty silver coins,^[a] and the ox must be stoned.

²⁶ Judah said to his brothers, “What will we gain by killing our brother? We’d have to cover up the crime.^{[a] 27} Instead of hurting him, let’s sell him to those Ishmaelite traders. After all, he is our brother—our own flesh and blood!” And his brothers agreed. ²⁸ So when the Ishmaelites, who were Midianite traders, came by, Joseph’s brothers pulled him out of the cistern and sold him to them for twenty pieces^[b] of silver. And the traders took him to Egypt.

⁹ But people who long to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction. ¹⁰ For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.

¹⁴ They commit adultery with their eyes, and their desire for sin is never satisfied. They lure unstable people into sin, and they are well trained in greed. They live under God’s curse. ¹⁵ They have wandered off the right road and followed the footsteps of Balaam son of Beor,^[a] who loved to earn money by doing wrong.

³ In their greed they will make up clever lies to get hold of your money. But God condemned them long ago, and their destruction will not be delayed.

³ He must not be a heavy drinker^[a] or be violent. He must be gentle, not quarrelsome, and not love money.

³ When Judas, who had betrayed him, realized that Jesus had been condemned to die, he was filled with remorse. So he took the thirty pieces of silver back to the leading priests and the elders. ⁴ “I have sinned,” he declared, “for I have betrayed an innocent man.”

“What do we care?” they retorted. “That’s your problem.”

⁵ Then Judas threw the silver coins down in the Temple and went out and hanged himself.

¹⁹ “Be quiet and come with us,” they said. “Be a father and priest to all of us. Isn’t it better to be a priest for an entire tribe and clan of Israel than for the household of just one man?”

²⁰ The young priest was quite happy to go with them, so he took along the sacred ephod, the household idols, and the carved image.