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(1) The word "goodly" in Zech. 11: 13 is the translation of eder. The cognate
adjective, addip, is variously rendered "lordly", "excellent", "glorious", "noble",
"mighty", etc., and there is no instance where it is used ironically. The words "price"
and "prized" are translations of yagar. This word is translated "honour" and "precious"
elsewhere, without the slightest hint of irony ever being associated with it, and indeed it
may be added that irony is not discoverable anywhere in Zechariah's writings. We must
therefore dismiss the suggestion of irony and contempt as being the invention of those
who wished to justify their explanation of the difficulty found in Matt. 27:
(2) The thirty pieces of silver are said to be a paltry sum to offer the prophet.
Neh. 5: 15 records the fact that
"Former governors were chargeable unto the people and had taken of them bread and
wine, beside forty shekels of silver."
Judg. 17: 10 states that Micah offered the Levite ten shekels of silver a year, a suit
of apparel and his victuals. A fourth part of a shekel of silver was considered to be
sufficient to offer to the man of God by the servant of Saul (I Sam. 9: 8). These facts
and the seriousness of Jeremiah in weighing out the seventeen shekels of silver for the
price of the field in Anathoth (Jer. 32:), set aside all argument which would regard
thirty shekels of silver as a contemptuous and paltry sum.
(3) The suggestion that Zechariah "flung down the silver in contempt" must next be
examined. The word "cast", which translates shalak, is used of Moses when he cast the
tree into the bitter waters (Exod. 15: 25); of Elijah when he cast his mantle upon Elisha
(I Kings 19: 19), and of Elisha when he cast salt into the waters and meal into the pot
(II King 2: 21 and 4: 41). In II Chron. 24: 10, 11, where it is used of silver in
connection with the house of the Lord, it approaches very near to Zechariah's use of
the word.
(4) It is assumed that the word translated "potter" in Zech. 11: means necessarily
"a worker in clay". This should be easily capable of proof. The word translated "potter"
is yatsar. The verb denotes the act of forming or fashioning, but indicates nothing as to
the material with which the forming or fashioning is done. Where pottery or working in
clay is referred to, it is necessary that the passage say so. It may, for instance, be pointed
out that the word is used of a worker in metals. In Isaiah it is "The Smith" working
with bellows and furnace that "forms" (yatsar) the weapon (Isa. 54: 16, 17). Again in
Isa. 44: 9-12:--
"The fashioners of a graven image . . . . . who hath fashioned a god or a molten graven
image . . . . . fashioneth it with hammers."
Here it would be ridiculous to introduce the idea of a potter, a worker in clay; yet the
same word is used that gives us the word "potter". So in Hab. 2: 18, 19, which the
reader should consult. The common noun, pot, unlike its cognate, potter and pottery, is
applicable to metallic vessels, as well as earthen ones. So, likewise, the Hebrew