Albert Barnes Commentary Matthew 27:3

"Then Judas, who betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders," — Matthew 27:3 (ASV)

Then Judas—when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself. This shows that Judas did not suppose that the affair would result in such a calamitous outcome. He probably expected that Jesus would have worked a miracle to deliver himself, and not have allowed this condemnation to come upon him.

When he saw Jesus taken, bound, tried, and condemned; when he saw that all likelihood that Jesus would deliver himself was gone, he was overwhelmed with disappointment, sorrow, and remorse of conscience. The word rendered repented himself, it has been observed, does not necessarily denote a change for the better, but any change of views and feelings.

Here it evidently means no other change than that produced by the horrors of a guilty conscience and by deep remorse for his crime and its unexpected results. It was not saving repentance; that leads to a holy life: this repentance led to an increase of crime in his own death. True repentance leads the sinner to the Saviour; this led away from the Saviour to the gallows.

Judas, if he had been a true penitent, would have come to Jesus then, confessed his crime at his feet, and sought pardon there. But, overwhelmed with remorse and the conviction of vast guilt, he was not willing to come into his presence, and added to the crime of a traitor that of self-murder. Assuredly, such a man could not be a true penitent.