That Princely Sum

Then I said to them,

"If it seems good to you, give me my wages;

but if not, keep them."

And they weighed out as my wages thirty pieces of silver.

Then Yahweh said to me, 

"Throw it out to the potter" 

--the lordly price at which I was priced by them!

So I took the thirty pieces of silver

and threw them into the house of Yahweh, to the potter.

--Zechariah 11:12-13--

There is more than a hint of irony here.  Thirty pieces of silver have two other very different connotations in Scripture.  But the rather sarcastic irony is first seen in the prophet's words, "The lordly price!" (ESV).  NJKV says, "That princely price!"  NLT says, "This magnificent sum at which they valued me!"

The sarcasm is that there is NOTHING princely about such a sum.  Thirty shekels of silver was the price to be paid in restitution for a slave who was killed (Exodus 21:32).  Magnificent?  Lordly?  Hardly.

The irony is much intensified by the passage in Matthew 27:3-10.  Thirty pieces of silver.  That's what Judas sold Jesus for.

God was sold for the price of a slave.

Paul marvels at this mystery in Philippians 2:5-8.  Jesus did make himself nothing.  He took the form of a bondservant even to the point of humble death.  The price for His death was that of the price for a slave's death.

That makes my mind want to explode.