Albert Barnes Commentary Matthew 26:15

"and said, What are ye willing to give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they weighed unto him thirty pieces of silver." — Matthew 26:15 (ASV)

And they covenanted with him. They made a bargain with him and agreed to give him the money. Mark says they promised to give him money. They did not pay it to him then, so that he would not deceive them. When the deed was done, and before he realized its guilt, they paid him. See Matthew 27:3; Acts 1:18.

Thirty pieces of silver. Mark and Luke do not mention the sum. They say that they promised him money—in the original, silver. In Matthew, in the original, it is thirty silvers, or silverlings. This was the price of a slave. See Exodus 21:32.

It is not unlikely that this sum was fixed on by them to show their contempt of Jesus and that they regarded him as of little value. There is no doubt, also, that they understood that Judas was so anxious to obtain money that he would betray his Lord for any sum.

The money usually denoted by pieces of silver, when the precise sum is not mentioned, is a shekel—a silver Jewish coin, amounting to about fifty cents [or 2s. 3d.]. The whole sum, therefore, for which Judas committed this crime, was fifteen dollars [or 3l 7s. 6d.].