What Does Zechariah 11:12 Mean in the King James?
And I said unto them, If ye think good, give me my price; and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The shepherd’s “price” is named as wages, so the silver marks how those receiving his service value it.
THE MEANING
You stand before the shepherd’s question: is this service good in your eyes? The answer is tangible, silver weighed out as wages. What is placed on the scale makes the payer’s valuation visible.
THE ROOT
וַיִּשְׁקְלוּ
wayyišqəlû
GROWS FROM
שקל
To weigh or weigh out.
“weighed” in this verse is wayyišqəlû. The verb names an actual weighing out, making the appraisal material and visible. The related shekel carries this same weighing language, so the silver is measured as well as counted.
ALSO GROWS
sheqel: A shekel; a unit of weight and silver measure.
שֶׁקֶל
It carries the same weigh-root, linking the payment to a measured amount.
mishqal: Weight or a measured amount.
מִשְׁקָל
It shows how weighing can become the measure by which something is appraised.
שְׂכָרִי
sekhari
GROWS FROM
שׂכר
Hire, wages, or reward.
The word translated “price” is “my wages” or “my reward,” keeping the shepherd’s service in view alongside the silver. The payment measures what those receiving that service are willing to give.
ALSO GROWS
sākār: Wages or reward.
שָׂכָר
This is the wage-word at the heart of the shepherd’s request.
sāḵîr: A hired worker.
שָׂכִיר
This branch makes the relationship between service and payment explicit.
THE PATTERN
A payment makes visible the value people place on the life or labor before them.
If the ox shall push a manservant or a maidservant; he shall give unto their master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned.And said unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver.For the scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. And, The labourer is worthy of his reward.THE THREAD
And Leah said, God hath given me my hire, because I have given my maiden to my husband: and she called his name Issachar.The “hire” here is שָׂכָר (sākār, wages or reward), from the same root as “my price” in Zechariah. Genesis connects that hire to Issachar (יִשָּׂשכָר, Yissakhar, “there is hire or reward”), turning the wage-word into a name.
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