Matthew Poole and continuators on Matthew 27:10

10 And gave them for the potters field, as the Lord appointed me.

They at last resolve what to do with the Money, which was no great Sum (for as we Noted before, it exceeded not three pounds and fifteen Shillings) they would not turn it to their own private use, for (probably) it was before taken out of the Treasury, neither would they again return it into the Treasury, because it had been made use of as the Hire of Blood. They therefore agree to buy with it a piece of Ground, ordinarily known by the Name of the Potters Field, probably because some Potter had Digged Earth, and thrown the wast of his Pot-kilnes there, so as it was of no great value. This Field the Vulgar upon this purchase of it by the Priests, called many Years after. The Field of the Blood. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the Prophet. The Evangelists use this Term fulfilled, as I have before Noted, in very different Senses. 1. Sometimes to express the Accomplishment of a Prophesy. 2. Sometimes to express the fulfilling of a Type or answering it by the Antitype. 3. Sometimes to express an Allusion to some other Scripture, mentioning some matter of Fact, of a like Nature. For the Text here quoted, we have no such Text in the Writing of the Prophet Ieremy, which are upon sacred Record. Ieremy indeed did buy a Field by order from God, Chap. 32.9. to declare his Faith in Gods promises, for the return of the Jews out of Captivity, but he bought it of his Uncle Hananeel, and for seventeen pieces of Silver, and that he was a Potter, or that the Field was called by that Name, we do not Read. The nearest place in the Prop[illegible: 1 letter]ets to this Text is Zechar. 11.12, 13. And I said unto them, if you think good, give me my price, so they weighed for my p[illegible: 1 letter]ice thirty pieces of Silver, and the Lord said unto me, cast it unto the Potters, a goodly price, that I was prized at of t[illegible: 1 letter]em. And I took the thirty pieces of Silver, and I cast t[illegible: 1 letter]em to the Potter in the House of the Lord. It is a very hard Text as it lies in the Prophet to give a just account of. The P[illegible: 1 letter]ophet was one of them who Prophesied after the Captivity of Babylon, yet v. 6. he plainly Prophesieth after Gods Destruction of the Jews and of Ierusalem. Which Destruction being (after that of the Caldeans) to what it should refer, but to the last Destruction of the Jews by the Romans, I cannot understand. v. 7. he saith, I will feed the Flock of [illegible: 1 letter]he Slaughter, that is, the Flock designed for the Slaughter, or drawing near to the Slaughter, even you, O poor of the Flock! Christ came in Person to feed the Church of the Jews, but they also abhorred him, so that he abhorred them, and resolved to cast them quite off. v. 8, 9. so he broke first his Staff called Beauty, took away all the Glory and Beauty of that Church. Then as it were in Indignation, he saith, If you think good give me my price. What Requital will you give me for my Labour amongst you? So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of Silver. Their selling of Christ to a Traytor for so much, signified their High Contempt of him. And the Lord said, 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 Evangelist indeed doth not quote the very Words of the Prophet, but the substance of them. And for my part I think, that the Evangelist here by fulfilling, meaneth the Accomplishment of the Prophesy in Zechariah. For I know not what other Tolerable Sense to make of the Prophesy, if we do not say the prophet spake in the Person of Chri[illegible: 1 letter]t, foretelling his own coming among[illegible: 1 letter]t them, their Rejection, and Co[illegible: 1 letter]tempt of him, and his utter Rejection of them, and Prophesiing as a piece of their Contempt and Rejection of him, their selling him to Iudas for thirty pieces of Silver (a most Contemptible price) and God so ordering it by his Providence, that this Money should again be brought them, and this Potters Field should be bought with it. So as I think, that Text was fulfilled here, more than by Allusion, or as it was Typical to this Act, and that this Act was the very thing which there is prophesied, and here fulfilled. But how Matthew saith, This was spoken by Jeremy the Prophet is an harder Knot. It is observable that Zechariah hath many things found in Ieremy, and it is not improbable, that the very same thing was Prophesied by Ieremy, tho afterward repeated by Zechariah, and only in the Writings of Zechariah left upon sacred Record. Matthew having now given us an account of the fate of Iudas, returned to our Saviour, carryed (as we heard) before Pilate.