⁴ The Lord my God says this: “Shepherd the flock intended for slaughter. ⁵ Those who buy them slaughter them but are not punished.^(A) Those who sell them say, ‘Blessed be the Lord because I have become rich!’ Even their own shepherds have no compassion for them. ⁶ Indeed, I will no longer have compassion on the inhabitants of the land”—this is the Lord’s declaration. “Instead, I will turn everyone over to his neighbor and his king. They will devastate the land, and I will not rescue it from their hand.”^(B)

⁷ So I shepherded the flock intended for slaughter, the oppressed of the flock.^[a] I took two staffs, calling one Favor^(C) and the other Union, and I shepherded the flock. ⁸ In one month I got rid of three shepherds. I became impatient with them, and they also detested me. ⁹ Then I said, “I will no longer shepherd you. Let what is dying die, and let what is perishing perish; let the rest devour each other’s flesh.” ¹⁰ Next I took my staff called Favor and cut it in two, annulling the covenant I had made with all the peoples. ¹¹ It was annulled on that day, and so the oppressed of the flock^[b] who were watching me knew that it was the word of the Lord. ¹² Then I said to them, “If it seems right to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them.” So they weighed my wages, thirty pieces of silver.^(D)

¹³ “Throw it to the potter,”^[c] the Lord said to me—this magnificent price I was valued by them. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw it into the house of the Lord, to the potter.^{[d](E) 14} Then I cut in two my second staff, Union, annulling the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

Jesus Handed Over to Pilate

27 When daybreak came, all the chief priests and the elders of the people plotted against Jesus to put him to death.^{(A) 2} After tying him up, they led him away and handed him over to Pilate,^[a] the governor.^(B)

Judas Hangs Himself

³ Then Judas, his betrayer, seeing that Jesus had been condemned, was full of remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders.^{(C) 4} “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood,” he said.

“What’s that to us?” they said. “See to it yourself!” ⁵ So he threw the silver into the temple^(D) and departed. Then he went and hanged himself.

⁶ The chief priests took the silver and said, “It’s not permitted^(E) to put it into the temple treasury, since it is blood money.” ⁷ They conferred together and bought the potter’s field with it as a burial place for foreigners. ⁸ Therefore that field has been called “Field of Blood” to this day. ⁹ Then what was spoken through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: They took^[b] the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him whose price was set by the Israelites, ¹⁰ and they gave^[c] them for the potter’s field, as the Lord directed me.^[d](F)