What Does Zechariah 11:12 Mean?
And I said to them, If it is good in your eyes, give me my wages; and if not, leave off. And they weighed out for my wages thirty pieces of silver.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
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 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 out” 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 gores a manservant or a maidservant, he gives to their master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox is stoned.And said to them, What will you give me, and I will hand him over to you? And they set out for him thirty pieces of silver.For the writing says, "You shall not muzzle the ox while he treads out the grain," and, "The worker is weighed worthy of his wage."THE THREAD
And Leah said, God has given me my wages, because I have given my maidservant to my husband. And she called his name Issachar, wages.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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