From the beginning

Foretold

Jesus said Moses wrote about Him. It is not a secret code. It is a lot of page: a line, the numbers He counted, the signs He named, and the days He appointed.

Walk it the way the text walks. The Hebrew is still on the page. When a preacher stretched a name, or forced a number, we say so.

The line

It runs from a garden to a town, in the order the text already walks.

01Seed02Names03Nations04Priest05Ram06Joseph07Scepter08I AM09Lamb10Bread11Rock12Curtain13Goat14Serpent15Prophet16Redeemer17House18Pierced19Stone20Immanuel21Branch22Egypt23Bethlehem24Donkey25Silver26Covenant

The numbers

It counts a week, a wait, and a people, then fourteen generations, ten words, a third day, seventy, and a tally.

SevenFortyTwelveFourteenThird dayTen wordsSeventy447

The signs

He named them Himself: a fish, a star, a prophet, a rest, and a bow.

JonahStarElijahSabbathBow

The days

These are appointed times: first fruit, fifty days, booths, and a year of release.

01First fruit02Weeks03Booths04Jubilee

The line · 25 of 26 · Zechariah 11:12

Thirty pieces of silver

The price is a shepherd’s wage, and it is thrown to the potter. Then a field is bought with blood money.

The text
If it seems good to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them. So they weighed out my wages, thirty pieces of silver. Then the Lord said, Throw it to the potter — the lordly price at which I was priced by them.

The word

כֶּסֶף

silver, money, a weighed price (kesef)

Walk this word

What happens

  1. 01Weigh my wages

    Zechariah 11:12

    A shepherd asks what he is worth to them. Thirty pieces of silver. Exodus had already called that the price of a slave.

  2. 02Throw it to the potter

    Zechariah 11:13

    The lordly price at which I was priced by them. He throws it into the house of the Lord, to the potter.

  3. 03What will you give me?

    Matthew 26:15

    Judas goes to the priests. They weigh thirty pieces of silver. The number is not a later flourish.

  4. 04Blood money for a field

    Matthew 27:7

    He throws the silver into the temple. They buy the potter’s field to bury strangers. The treasury will not hold it.

  5. 05A seam in the name

    Matthew 27:9

    Matthew says Jeremiah. Jeremiah bought a field. Zechariah has the thirty and the potter. The copies of the story still agree on the silver. We do not paper over the prophet’s name.

The wage they weighed

Thirty pieces. The Law’s price for a slave.

What they buy

A potter’s field. Blood money they will not keep.

Read it this way

Zechariah acts a shepherd of a doomed flock. He asks for his wage. They weigh thirty pieces of silver — the Law’s price for a slave gored by an ox. The Lord calls it a lordly price, with a hard mouth. Throw it to the potter. Kesef (כֶּסֶף) is silver.

Judas asks, what will you give me? They weigh thirty. Later he throws the silver into the temple. The priests will not put blood money in the treasury. They buy the potter’s field. Matthew says Jeremiah — a known seam. Jeremiah did buy a field. Zechariah has the thirty and the potter. We do not hide the name on the quote. The silver, the throwing, the potter, the field are still on the page.

Then it is named

The other room. Same line. A Person with a name.

Matthew 26:15Matthew 27:9

Some sayThirty pieces is a coincidence. Matthew even names the wrong prophet.

The wage is what you paid for a slave. It is thrown down, and it buys a potter’s field. Matthew names a seam. He does not invent the silver.

Open Zechariah 11Zechariah 11:13

The copies sometimes differ — that is Witness. Words you already say out loud sit in Words with weight. Foretold is what the page already says. It is not a decoder ring.