And the LORD said unto me, Cast it unto the potter: a goodly price that I was prised at of them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of the LORD.
And the Lord said unto me, Cast it unto the potter - proverbial: throw it to the temple-potter, the most suitable person to whom to cast the despicable sum, plying his trade as he did in the polluted valley (2 Kings 23:10) of Hinnom, because it furnished him with the most suitable clay. This same valley, and the potter's shop, were made the scene of symbolic action by Jeremiah (Zechariah 1:8; Zechariah 1:19), when prophesying of this very period of Jewish history. Zechariah connects his prophecy here with the older one of Jeremiah; showing the further application of the same divine threat against His unfaithful people in their destruction under Rome, as before in that under Nebuchadnezzar. Hence, Matthew 27:9 in the English version, and in the oldest authorities, quotes Zechariah's words as Jeremiah's the latter being the original author from whom Zechariah derived the groundwork of the prophecy. Compare the parallel case of Mark 1:2-3, in the oldest manuscripts (though not in the English version), quoting Malachi's words (Malachi 3:1) as those of "Isaiah," who was in fact (Isaiah 40:3) the original source of the prophecy; "As it is written in the prophet Esaias, Behold I send my messenger before thy face, who shall prepare thy way before thee." Isaiah first had said, "Prepare ye the way of the Lord," and Malachi had expanded this prophetic germ. Compare my Introduction to "Zechariah." The "potter" is significant of God's absolute power over the clay framed by His own hand (Isaiah 45:9; Jeremiah 18:6; Romans 9:20-21,
A goodly price that I was prized at of them - irony. Whereas I looked for their love and obedience as the return for my love, they offered me ceremonial observances without piety, and ended with selling me at thirty pieces of silver.
And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of the Lord. The 30 pieces are thrown down in the temple, as the house of Yahweh, the fit place for the money of Yahweh-Messiah being deposited in the treasury, and the very place, accordingly, where Judas "cast them down." The 30 pieces were cast "to the potter," because it was to him they were "appointed by the Lord" ultimately to go, as a worthless price (cf. Matthew 27:6-7; Matthew 27:10). For "I took," and "I cast them:" here Matthew has "they took," "they gave them;" because their (the Jews' and Judas') act was all His "appointment," in accordance with His "determinate counsel and foreknowledge" (which Matthew also expresses), and therefore is here attributed to Him (cf. Acts 2:23; Acts 4:28). It is curious, some old translators, the Chaldaic and Syriac versions, and Kimchi, translate х hayowtseer (H3335)], for "to the potter," 'to the treasury' (so Maurer), agreeing with Matthew 27:6, "The chief priests took the silver pieces, and said, It is not lawful for to put them into the treasury." But the English version agrees better with the Hebrew and Matthew 27:10, "and gave them for the potter's field, as the Lord appointed me."