11:12 thirty pieces of silver. For the fulfillment of this remarkable prophecy five hundred years later, see Matthew 26:14-16. “Thirty pieces of silver” was the value placed on the fatal goring of a man’s slave by his neighbor’s ox (Exodus 21:32). The value of this divine Servant to His nation was greater than the wealth of the entire world, yet its leaders appraised His death as worth only the price of a dead slave.

11:13 a goodly price. This is spoken in sarcasm, Zechariah acting out this visual prophecy and contemptuously rejecting the insulting price at which His shepherding ministry had been valued, speaking, of course, in the name of the true Shepherd who would come some day to His people, as described in Zechariah 9:9.

11:13 cast them to the potter. In addition to the price itself, the disposition of this blood money was also accurately foretold. See Matthew 27:3-10, where the prophecy is attributed to Jeremiah (for the reason for this seeming “mistake,” see the note on Matthew 27:9).