Genesis 37:28

37:28 So when the Midianite ¹  merchants passed by, Joseph’s brothers pulled ²  him ³  out of the cistern and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. The Ishmaelites ⁴  then took Joseph to Egypt.

Zechariah 11:12-13

11:12 Then I ⁵  said to them, “If it seems good to you, pay me my wages, but if not, forget it.” So they weighed out my payment – thirty pieces of silver. ⁶  11:13 The Lord then said to me, “Throw to the potter that exorbitant sum ⁷  at which they valued me!” So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them to the potter ⁸  at the temple ⁹  of the Lord.

Matthew 26:15

26:15 and said, “What will you give me to betray him into your hands?” ¹⁰  So they set out thirty silver coins for him.

Matthew 27:3-9

Judas’ Suicide

27:3 Now when ¹¹  Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that Jesus ¹²  had been condemned, he regretted what he had done and returned the thirty silver coins to the chief priests and the elders, 27:4 saying, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood!” But they said, “What is that to us? You take care of it yourself!” 27:5 So ¹³  Judas threw the silver coins into the temple and left. Then he went out and hanged himself. 27:6 The ¹⁴  chief priests took the silver and said, “It is not lawful to put this into the temple treasury, since it is blood money.” 27:7 After ¹⁵  consulting together they bought the Potter’s Field with it, as a burial place for foreigners. 27:8 For this reason that field has been called the “Field of Blood” to this day. 27:9 Then what was spoken by Jeremiah ¹⁶  the prophet was fulfilled: “They took the thirty silver coins, the price of the one whose price had been set by the people of Israel, ¹⁷ 

Philippians 2:7

2:7 but emptied himself

by taking on the form of a slave, ¹⁸ 

by looking like other men, ¹⁹ 

and by sharing in human nature. ²⁰ 

[37:28]  ¹ sn On the close relationship between Ishmaelites (v. 25) and Midianites, see Judg 8:24.

[37:28]  ² tn Heb “they drew and they lifted up.” The referent (Joseph’s brothers) has been specified in the translation for clarity; otherwise the reader might assume the Midianites had pulled Joseph from the cistern (but cf. NAB).

[37:28]  ³ tn Heb “Joseph” (both here and in the following clause); the proper name has been replaced both times by the pronoun “him” in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[37:28]  ⁴ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the Ishmaelites) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[11:12]  ⁵ sn The speaker (Zechariah) represents the Lord, who here is asking what his service as faithful shepherd has been worth in the opinion of his people Israel.

[11:12]  ⁶ sn If taken at face value, thirty pieces (shekels) of silver was worth about two and a half years’ wages for a common laborer. The Code of Hammurabi prescribes a monthly wage for a laborer of one shekel. If this were the case in Israel, 30 shekels would be the wages for 2 1/2 years (R. de Vaux, Ancient Israel, pp. 76, 204-5). For other examples of “thirty shekels” as a conventional payment, see K. Luke, “The Thirty Pieces of Silver (Zech. 11:12f.), Ind TS 19 (1982): 26-30. Luke, on the basis of Sumerian analogues, suggests that “thirty” came to be a term meaning anything of little or no value (p. 30). In this he follows Erica Reiner, “Thirty Pieces of Silver,” in Essays in Memory of E. A. Speiser, AOS 53, ed. William W. Hallo (New Haven, Conn.: American Oriental Society, 1968), 186-90. Though the 30 shekels elsewhere in the OT may well be taken literally, the context of Zech. 11:12 may indeed support Reiner and Luke in seeing it as a pittance here, not worth considering (cf. Exod 21:32; Lev 27:4; Matt 26:15).

[11:13]  ⁷ tn Heb “splendor of splendor” (אֶדֶר הַיְקָר, ’eder hayqar). This expression sarcastically draws attention to the incredibly low value placed upon the Lord’s redemptive grace by his very own people.

[11:13]  ⁸ tn The Syriac presupposes הָאוֹצָר (ha’otsar, “treasury”) for the MT הַיּוֹצֵר (hayyotser, “potter”) perhaps because of the lack of evidence for a potter’s shop in the area of the temple. The Syriac reading is followed by NAB, NRSV, TEV. Matthew seems to favor this when he speaks of Judas having thrown the thirty shekels for which he betrayed Jesus into the temple treasury (27:5-6). However, careful reading of the whole gospel pericope makes it clear that the money actually was used to purchase a “potter’s field,” hence Zechariah’s reference to a potter. The MT reading is followed by most other English versions.

[11:13]  ⁹ tn Heb “house” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[26:15]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “What will you give to me, and I will betray him to you?”

[27:3]  ¹¹ tn Grk “Then when.” Here τότε (tote) has been translated as “now” to indicate a somewhat parenthetical interlude in the sequence of events.

[27:3]  ¹² tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[27:5]  ¹³ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the implied result of the leaders’ response to Judas.

[27:6]  ¹⁴ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[27:7]  ¹⁵ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[27:9]  ¹⁶ tc The problematic citing of Jeremiah for a text which appears to come from Zechariah has prompted certain scribes to alter it. Codex 22 has Ζαχαρίου (Zacariou, “Zechariah”) while Φ 33 omit the prophet’s name altogether. And codex 21 and the Latin ms l change the prophet’s name to “Isaiah,” in accordance with natural scribal proclivities to alter the text toward the most prominent OT prophet. But unquestionably the name Jeremiah is the wording of the original here, because it is supported by virtually all witnesses and because it is the harder reading. See D. A. Carson, “Matthew,” EBC 8:562-63, for a discussion of the textual and especially hermeneutical problem.

[27:9]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “the sons of Israel,” an idiom referring to the people of Israel as an ethnic entity (L&N 11.58).

[2:7]  ¹⁸ tn See the note on the word “slaves” in 1:1.

[2:7]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “by coming in the likeness of people.”

[2:7]  ²⁰ tn Grk “and by being found in form as a man.” The versification of vv. 7 and 8 (so also NRSV) is according to the versification in the NA²⁷ and UBS⁴ editions of the Greek text. Some translations, however, break the verses in front of this phrase (NKJV, NASB, NIV, NLT). The same material has been translated in each case; the only difference is the versification of that material.