# Day 295

# The Death of Judas Iscariot

Matthew 27:3–10

Judas Iscariot, the man who betrayed Jesus, heard Jesus was to die. So he changed his mind about what he’d done. He brought the thirty pieces of silver back to the priests. “I’ve sinned,” said Judas. “Jesus is an innocent man.”

“Why should that matter to us?” answered the leading priests. “What you’ve done is your problem.”

Judas threw the coins in front of the priests in the temple. Then he ran away and hanged himself. The priests took the silver. But they said, “Moses’ law says we can’t put this in the offering. It is money that was used for death.” They talked about this problem for a while. Then they decided to buy the potter’s field with the money. It would be used to bury people who weren’t Jews. This is why this field has always been called the Field of Blood.

Hundreds of years before this happened, the prophet Zechariah predicted it would. “They took the thirty pieces of silver,” wrote Zechariah. “This is the price set for the servant of Israel. They gave them as the price for the potter’s field. This is as the Lord commanded.”

Questions: What did Judas tell the priests about Jesus? Why wouldn’t the priests give Judas’s money to the temple offering?