Albert Barnes Commentary Matthew 27:7

"And they took counsel, and bought with them the potter`s field, to bury strangers in." — Matthew 27:7 (ASV)

And they took counsel. They consulted among themselves about the proper way to dispose of this money.

And bought with them. In Acts 1:18, it is said of Judas that he purchased a field with the reward of iniquity. By the passage in Acts, it is meant no more than that he furnished the means, or was the occasion of purchasing the field.

It is not necessarily implied that Judas actually made the contract and paid the money to buy a field for burying strangers—a thing which would be very improbable in itself. Rather, it was by his means that the field was purchased.

It is very frequent in the Scriptures, as well as in other writings, to represent a person as doing that which they are only the cause or occasion of another's doing. See Acts 2:23; John 19:1; Matthew 27:59–60.

The potter's field. Probably this was some field well known by that name, which was used for the purpose of making earthen vessels. The price paid for a field so near Jerusalem may appear to be very small, but it is not improbable that it had been worked until the clay was exhausted, and was neither fit for that business nor for tillage, and was therefore considered as of little value.

To bury strangers in. These were Jews who came up from other parts of the world to attend the great feasts at Jerusalem. The high priests, who regarded the Gentiles as abominable, would not have been inclined to provide a burial place for them.