Verse 12
Since Zechariah was terminating his protection of the flock, he asked the sheep to pay him his wages or, if they refused, to keep what they owed him.
He is more concerned about making the flock feel that he is done with it than he is about money." [Note: Leupold, p. 216.]
The sheep weighed out 30 shekels of silver as his pay. This was the price of a gored slave in the ancient Near East (Exodus 21:32) and, though a substantial amount, was a pittance in view of all that the Shepherd had done for the sheep. [Note: See E. Reiner, "Thirty Pieces of Silver," Journal of the American Oriental Society 88 (January-March 1968):186-90.] Their act was as shamelessly insulting as their general reaction to His ministry as a whole had been. To offer him this wage was far worse than simple outward rejection (cf. Matthew 26:15). It was the equivalent of telling the Shepherd that they could buy a dead slave who would be as useful to them as He had been. This response shows how unworthy the people were of His solicitude.
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