Judas came to sell, and his question names his price before it names his deed: "What will ye give me." Gill stresses that the priests "did not ask him to do it, he first made the motion." Luke says, "Then entered Satan into Judas" (Luke 22:3), and Barnes adds, "Probably he tempted Judas by appealing to his avarice, his ruling passion." John had already said Judas "was a thief, and had the bag" (John 12:6). Matthew Henry asks the obvious question, "What did Judas want?" and answers, "It is not the lack, but the love of money, that is the root of all evil."

The chief priests gave a direct answer: "they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver" (Matthew 26:15). Mark says "they were glad, and promised to give him money" (Mark 14:11). From then on Judas "sought opportunity to betray him" (Matthew 26:16). The bargain ended in ruin. When Judas saw Jesus condemned, he brought the silver back saying, "I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood," and the priests replied, "What is that to us?" (Matthew 27:3-4). With the money they bought the potter's field (Matthew 27:7).

"Covenanted" translates estesan, from histemi, to set or place. Thayer explains that here it means "to set or place in a balance; to weigh," because in early times metal was weighed out as payment. Zechariah uses the same picture: "they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver" (Zechariah 11:12).

Gill identifies the thirty pieces as thirty shekels of silver, "the price of a servant" under the Law (Exodus 21:32), where it was the compensation owed when an ox killed a slave. Barnes agrees, "This was the price of a slave," and suggests the sum may have been chosen "to show their contempt of Jesus."

Even here, God was not absent. Jesus had already said, "The Son of man goeth as it is written of him" (Matthew 26:24), and Matthew later shows the thirty pieces fulfilling what the prophet had spoken about "the price of him that was valued" (Matthew 27:9-10). Gill connects the sum to Zechariah's "goodly price" (Zechariah 11:12-13). The betrayal was real sin, and Jesus pronounced woe on the betrayer (Matthew 26:24), yet it did not take God by surprise.

The contrast with the scene before it is sharp. A woman poured out ointment worth a year's wages on Jesus; one of the twelve sold Him for the price of a slave. Matthew Henry draws a sober lesson from Judas being one of the twelve: "surely we must never expect any society to be quite pure on this side heaven."