Zech. xi. 12, 13. And 1 said unto them, If ye think good, give me my price; and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver. And the Lord said unto me, Cast it unto the potter : a goodly price that I was prized at of them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of the Lord*.
THE prophet, under the character of a shepherd, is declaring what reception he had met with from the
a The text may properly consist of these words only. Zech. xi. 13. A goodly price that I was prized at of them ! And they may be treated 1. In reference to the Jews, who fulfilled the prophecy. (Here the first head might be introduced.) 2. In reference to ourselves. (Here the second entire head, and all the Application, would come in easily.) — If the subject have no immediate reference to the passion week, I would rather recommend this mode of treating it.
1257. J TfIE CONTEMPT POURED ON CHRIST. 515
flock committed to his charge, and what judgments awaited them for their treatment of him. Extremely beautiful and grand is the address at the beginning of the chapter, where he calls on all orders of the Jewish community to prepare for the sentence that was gone
forth against themb, and threatens to abandon
them to their fatec. He then takes two staves or wands, one of which he called Beauty, and the other, Bands ; and in their presence cut asunder the one that was designated by the name of Beauty, in order to intimate, that their whole ecclesiastical polity, which was the beauty and glory of the whole world, should be dissolved*1. Obscure as this intimation was, it was understood by the poor, the humble, and the pious, who trembled at the voice of the Lord6. The other stick, named Bands, represented the civil polity of the Jews : and before he proceeded to cut asunder that also, and to declare the utter destruction of the whole nation, he made one more effort in their favour, and desired the chief priests and elders to signify their regard for his services by such a pecuniary tender as they deemed adequate to their value. They, in com- pliance with this demand, weighed out to him thirty pieces of silver, the price of a common slave f. Upon this, the Lord, full of indignation against them for so undervaluing his richest mercies, ordered the prophet to cast the money to a potter who happened to be in the temple, and then to cut asunder the other staff, in token of his giving them up to intestine commo- tions and to utter destruction6.
But the whole of this transaction had respect also to other times, and other circumstances ; and must be understood, I. As a prophetic intimation —
The prophet was a type of that great and good Shepherd, who was in due time to come into the world, and " to lay down his life for the sheep :" and the treatment which he received, was typical of what
b ver. i — 3} 6, c ver. 9. d ver. 10.
* ver. 11. f Exod. xxi. 32. g ver. 1.3, 14.