8:30 Then the priests and the Levites took charge of 6 the silver, the gold, and the vessels that had been weighed out, to transport them to Jerusalem to the temple of our God.
28:15 Fine gold cannot be given in exchange for it,
nor can its price be weighed out in silver.
11:12 Then I 8 said to them, “If it seems good to you, pay me my wages, but if not, forget it.” So they weighed out my payment – thirty pieces of silver. 9
13:8 Owe no one anything, except to love one another, for the one who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.
4:8 Finally, brothers and sisters, 14 whatever is true, whatever is worthy of respect, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if something is excellent or praiseworthy, think about these things.
4:1 So then, my brothers and sisters, 15 dear friends whom I long to see, my joy and crown, stand in the Lord in this way, my dear friends!
1 tn Heb “in its weight.”
2 tn Heb “brought it back in our hand.”
3 tn Heb “upon their hand.”
4 tn Possibly “100 silver vessels worth [?] talents” or “silver vessels weighing 100 talents.”
5 map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.
6 tn Heb “received.”
7 tn Heb “I weighed out the money [more literally, “silver”] for him, seventeen shekels of silver.”
sn Coins were not in common use until the postexilic period. Payment in gold and silver was made by cutting off pieces of silver or gold and weighing them in a beam balance using standard weights as the measure. A shekel weighed approximately 0.4 ounce or 11.4 grams. The English equivalents are only approximations.
8 sn The speaker (Zechariah) represents the
9 sn If taken at face value, thirty pieces (shekels) of silver was worth about two and a half years’ wages for a common laborer. The Code of Hammurabi prescribes a monthly wage for a laborer of one shekel. If this were the case in Israel, 30 shekels would be the wages for 2 1/2 years (R. de Vaux, Ancient Israel, pp. 76, 204-5). For other examples of “thirty shekels” as a conventional payment, see K. Luke, “The Thirty Pieces of Silver (Zech. 11:12f.), Ind TS 19 (1982): 26-30. Luke, on the basis of Sumerian analogues, suggests that “thirty” came to be a term meaning anything of little or no value (p. 30). In this he follows Erica Reiner, “Thirty Pieces of Silver,” in Essays in Memory of E. A. Speiser, AOS 53, ed. William W. Hallo (New Haven, Conn.: American Oriental Society, 1968), 186-90. Though the 30 shekels elsewhere in the OT may well be taken literally, the context of Zech. 11:12 may indeed support Reiner and Luke in seeing it as a pittance here, not worth considering (cf. Exod 21:32; Lev 27:4; Matt 26:15).
10 tn Grk “Therefore in.” Here οὖν (oun) has not been translated.
11 tn This is a generic use of ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo"), referring to both males and females.
12 sn Jesus’ teaching as reflected in the phrase treat others as you would want them to treat you, known generally as the Golden Rule, is not completely unique in the ancient world, but here it is stated in its most emphatic, selfless form.
13 tn Grk “is.”
14 tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:12.
15 tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:12.