Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/6_700.lzh/6_735.TXT

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upon me; as servants on their masters; as clients on
their patron; as beggars at the door for alms; as
attendants on the worship of God, for the manifesta-
tions of himself, for the performance of promiseS, and
for answers of prayer: or observed me {}; what he said
and did, his word, and his ordinances; what he
abolished, and what he instituted: knew that it was
the word of the Lord; either that Christ the Shepherd
was the essential Word of the Lord; or that the pro-
phecies concerning the destruction of the Jews, their
civil and ecclesiastical state, were the word and decree
of God now fulfilled; or that the Gospel taken from
them is the word of the Lord, which he is the author-
of; his grace is the matter and substance of; and
which he speaks by his ministers; and may be
known by the matter and efficacy of it; by the refresh-
ment and comfort it gives; by its leading souls .to
Christ; and by the harmony, agreement, and unifor-
mity of its doctrines.
Ver. I2. And I said unto them, &c.] Not to the poor
of the flock that waited on him, and knew the word of
the Lord, and valued it; but to the other Jews that
despised Christ and his Gospel: give me my price; or,
give my price {}; what I am valued at by you, to Judas
the betrayer: or the price due unto him for feeding the
flock, such as faith in him,love to him, reverence and
worship of him. So the Targum paraphrases it, do
my will. Kimchi says the price is repentance, and
good works: and ifnot, forbear; unless all is done
freely, willingly, and cheerfully; see Ezek. iS. 5, 7. or,
if worth nothing, give nothing: so they weighed for my
price thirty pieces of silver; the price a servant was
valued at, Exod. xxi. 32. see the fulfilment of this
prophecy in Matt. xxvi. 15. The Jews own {k} that this
prophecy belongs to the Messiah; but wrongly inter-
pret it of thirty precepts given by him: in just reta-
liation and righteous judgment, thirty Jews were sold by
the Romans tbr a penny, by way of contempt of them {l}.
Vet. 13. And the Lord said unto me, &c.3 The
Prophet Zechariah, in a visionary way representing
the sanhedrim of the Jews, the chief priests, scribes,
and elders: cast it unto the potter; for the purchase of
his field, in order to make a burying-ground of it for
strangers: a goodly price that I was valued at of them;
this is sarcastically said; meaning that it was a very
poor price; and shewed that they had no notion of the
worth and value of Christ, the Pearl of great price:
and I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to
the potter in the house of the Lord; it is a question with
some what these pieces of silver were ; they are com-
monly understood of silver shekels. So the Targum,
in Gen. xx. 16. and xlv. 22. renders pieces of silver by
shekels of silver; and Eusebius {} calls these here thirty
staters, the same with shekels; which, if common
shekels, reckoned at one shilling and threepence,
made but thirty-seven shillings and sixpence; and if
· shekels of the sanctuary, which at most were but two
shillings a.nd sixpence, thirty of these would make
but three pounds fifteen shillings; and therefore may
be truly called, ironically speaking, a goodly price;.
being no more than the price of a servant, as before
observed: but Drusius objects to this, seeing a-potter's
field was bought with this money; and asks, who can
believe that a field near so populous a city as Jeru-
salem could be bought for thirty shekels? and ob-
serves, from R. Elias Levita {n}, that it is a rule with
their doctors, that all silver mentioned in the law sig-.
nifies shekels; in the prophets, pounds; and in the
Hagiographa, talents: this is said, but not proved: to.
understand these of pounds, indeed, would make the
price considerable, and sufficient for the purchase of a
large field; for a silver munch or pound with the Jews
was of the value of sixty shekels, Ezek. xlv. 12. and
thirty of these make two hundred and seventy pounds;
but then this would not in an ironical way be called
a goodly price: and as to the objection about the pur-
chase of a field with such a sum of money as thirty
shekels amount to, it may be observed, what Grotius
seems rightly to conjecture, that this was a field the
potter had dug up, and had made the most of it, and
so was good for nothing but for such an use, for which
it was bought, to bury strangers in. It is also a dif-
ficulty to fix it certainly to whom this money was or-
dered to be given, and was given, It is here said
the potter; but Jarchi and Kimchi observe, that some
of their interpreters render it the treasurer; \^a\^ and \^y\^
being sometimes changed for one another; .thus, the
Targu?n paraphrases it, "under the hand of the trea-
"surer ;" and so others°; and indeed the money was
given to the chief priests and eiders, some of whom
might be in that office, Matt. xxvii. 3, 6. though there
is no need of such an alteration of the word, since the
money Judas took for betraying Christ, and east into!
the temple to the priests, they took up, and gave it to
the potter for the field they bought of him with it; and,
in the evangelist, the phrase by way of explanation is
rendered,Jbr the potter's field ,' and may be here properly
enough translated, for the potter; as the particle \^la\^ is
sometimes used {p}; that is, to begiven to him for pur-
chase-money {q}: and whereas the money is said to be
cast, or given to him, in the house of the Lord, i.e. in
the temple, it appears a fact, in the accom. plishment of
this prophecy, that it was cast into the temple, Matt.
xxvii, 5. and was took up by the priests; who, in all
probability, sent for the potter thither, and agreed
with him tbr his field, and paid him his money there;
for there is no reason to believe that he had a work-
house for his business in the temple; though it may be
he had one near it; see Jet. xviii. 1, 2. and worked for
the service of it, since earthen vessels were used in
temple-service {}. The accomplishment of all this is in
Matt. xxvii. 7, 8, 9, 10.
Vet.. 14. Then I cut asunder mine other staff, even
Bands, &c.] By which is meant, either the removal of
the form of civil government from the Jews-; or the
abrogation of the Mosaic law, and the carnal ordi-

{h} \^yta Myrmvh\^ qui observabant me, Burkius.
{i} \^yrbv wbh\^ date mercedem meam, Vatablus, Calvin, Junius & Tre-
mellius, Piscator, Cocceius.
{k} Bereshit Rabba, sect. 98. fol. 85. 3.
{l} Egesippus de Urb. excidio Anacep. p. 680.
{m} Demonstr. Evangel. l. 10. p. 479.
{n} In Tishbi, p. 130.
{o} Ad Thesaurarium, Pagninus, Vatablus.
{p} Vid. Nold. Ebr. Part Concord. p. 63.
{q} \^ruwyh la\^ pro figulo, Cocceius; conferedos in figulum, Junius &
Tremellius, Piscator; ut detur ad figulum, Burkius.
{r} Vid. Misn. Parah, c. 5. sect. 1.