So I shepherded the flock marked for slaughter,(A) particularly the oppressed of the flock. Then I took two staffs and called one Favor and the other Union, and I shepherded the flock. In one month I got rid of the three shepherds.

The flock detested(B) me, and I grew weary of them and said, “I will not be your shepherd. Let the dying die, and the perishing perish.(C) Let those who are left eat(D) one another’s flesh.”

10 Then I took my staff called Favor(E) and broke it, revoking(F) the covenant I had made with all the nations. 11 It was revoked on that day, and so the oppressed of the flock who were watching me knew it was the word of the Lord.

12 I told them, “If you think it best, give me my pay; but if not, keep it.” So they paid me thirty pieces of silver.(G)

13 And the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the potter”—the handsome price at which they valued me! So I took the thirty pieces of silver(H) and threw them to the potter at the house of the Lord.(I)

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When Judas, who had betrayed him,(A) saw that Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver(B) to the chief priests and the elders. “I have sinned,” he said, “for I have betrayed innocent blood.”

“What is that to us?” they replied. “That’s your responsibility.”(C)

So Judas threw the money into the temple(D) and left. Then he went away and hanged himself.(E)

The chief priests picked up the coins and said, “It is against the law to put this into the treasury, since it is blood money.” So they decided to use the money to buy the potter’s field as a burial place for foreigners. That is why it has been called the Field of Blood(F) to this day. Then what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled:(G) “They took the thirty pieces of silver, the price set on him by the people of Israel, 10 and they used them to buy the potter’s field, as the Lord commanded me.”[a](H)

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Footnotes

  1. Matthew 27:10 See Zech. 11:12,13; Jer. 19:1-13; 32:6-9.

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