John Calvin Commentary Zechariah 11:14

"Then I cut asunder mine other staff, even Bands, that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel." — Zechariah 11:14 (ASV)

The extreme vengeance of God in scattering His people is set before us here, so that there would no longer be any union between the children of Abraham. We have seen that the Prophet took two staves or crooks to carry out the office of a shepherd in ruling the people. The first staff, he said, was Beauty, because God had omitted nothing necessary to produce the best order of things. Now when this blessed way of ruling was trampled underfoot, the scattering of the people soon followed. This is why the Prophet says that he broke the other rod, or his crook. We then see that these people, by their ingratitude, at length justly deserved to be left without any regular form of government and also without any union.

Regarding the word חבלים, chebelim, we have said before that what the Rabbis teach us—that it means “destroyers”—does not agree with the passage. But why would Zechariah say here that the rod was broken, so that there would be no more union or fraternity between the kingdom of Judah and the ten tribes? We have already said that this word, by changing the points, may have the meaning that has been mentioned, for חבל, chebel, signifies a rope or binding. We must also bear in mind that this is an instance of “last first” (ὕστερον πρότερον), for he told us before that God, saying farewell to the people, demanded His reward. This, then, should have been mentioned first, but this inversion of order is common in Hebrew. This verse, then, we are to read as though it were placed before the last mission, by which God laid aside the office of a shepherd.

I will come now to the passage in Matthew. For after having told us that the thirty pieces of silver were cast away by Judah, and that by them the Potter’s Field was bought, he adds that this prediction of the Prophet was fulfilled. He does not indeed repeat the same words, but it is quite clear that this passage was quoted:

“They gave,” he says, “the thirty silvering, the price of the valued, whom they of the children of Israel have valued” (Matthew 27:9).

Essentially, then, there is undoubtedly an agreement between the words of Matthew and those of the Prophet. But we must hold this principle: that Christ was the true Jehovah from the beginning. Since the Son of God is the same in essence with the Father, and is with Him the only true God, it is no wonder that what the Prophet figuratively expressed as having been done under the Law by the ancient people was done to Christ literally in His own person. For just as they had given to God thirty pieces of silver—a shameful price—as His just reward, so He complained that the labor He undertook in ruling them was unjustly valued. And when Christ was sold for thirty pieces of silver, it was a visible demonstration of this prophecy shown in His own person.

When Matthew says that Christ was valued by the children of Israel, he charges the chosen people with impiety. The article ὁι is to be understood here. The expression is indeed ἀπὸ ὑιων Ισραὴλ, but the sentence is to be understood in this sense: He was valued at so low a price, not by foreign nations, but by the very people who were of the children of Israel and of the seed of Abraham. It is as though he had said, “This wrong has been offered to God, not by strangers, but by a people whom He had chosen and adopted as His special possession; and this wickedness is therefore less excusable.”

Then Matthew adds,

“They gave it for the Potter’s Field, as the Lord had commanded me” (Matthew 27:7–10).

This part also agrees well with the prophecy. It is indeed certain that this money was not intentionally given to buy a field so that the Jews might obey God. But we know that God carries out His purposes through the wicked, even though they neither intend nor wish to do such a thing.

But what does Zechariah say? Cast it, he says, to the potter; he does not say, “To the field of the potter.” We have explained for what purpose God commanded the thirty silvering to be cast to the potter: it was so that he might get bricks or tiles to repair the temple, and this was said as an insult or as a form of ridicule.

Such also was the visible symbol of this regarding the purchase of the field, for the potter, the seller of the field, did not know what he was doing; the Scribes and Pharisees had no thought of fulfilling what had been predicted. But so that it might be made clear that Christ was the true God who had from the beginning spoken by the Prophet, God, by presenting the matter clearly before them, intended for there to be a visible event or transaction, so that He might, as it were, draw the Jews’ attention to what is said here. The Prophet proceeds—