This part of the prophecy can plunge us into pessimism, for we are permitted, and only to a very small degree, to glimpse how impenetrable the darkness can become if the Lord’s Covenant with humanity collapses. Should we understand the words of the prophecy as an exact prediction of a situation that will arise fatally and inevitably? Or should we see in Zechariah’s words a warning addressed to people: you constantly retreat from the Covenant with the Lord, reject its terms, and invariably return to the same familiar sins; look, then, at what the world will become if the Covenant that constrains you so much is dissolved; taste what life will be like after you have finally rejected the Lord.

A flock that rejects the good Shepherd will inevitably fall into the hands of a worthless shepherd who will destroy it and then perish himself. This has happened many times before, yet centuries pass and bitter experience teaches no one.

Thirty pieces of silver became the symbol of the betrayal, the most terrible betrayal in the history of humanity - the betrayal of the Messiah by Judas, who was His follower. And the prophetic sermon, as it sometimes happens, became a prediction in every sense of the word, the prediction of what happened in the days of the earthly ministry of the Savior. Of course, the mission of the prophet is not to predict the future. The prophet is not a predicator, he is the witness of God, the one who can carry up to his contemporaries (if, of course, these last ones will want to listen to him) what God thinks of them, their deeds and actions.

But there are situations in the history, that the cultural historian would have probably called archetype, the situations where the form is not less symbolic, that the meaning itself. And one of such situations is the payment for the betrayal. Well then the situations can almost repeat themselves sometimes, as we say, one to one.

Zechariah just points out one of these situations, one of these moments, when the form and the meaning merge almost inseparably: the silver cast contemptuously, falling in the treasury of Temple as compensation, as payment to God "for anxiety". The union-covenant is broken, God takes His payment, as a penalty is taking, by saying: if you appreciate My works in any way, pay.

He is paid, paid the price, due to an artisan not so expensive: not completely without interest, but with an unworthy interest not only for God, but also for man, whose labor of is indeed valued high. And then it is enough to lead this logic to a good term, in order to receive the price of betrayal. Because, get rid of God - means turning away from Him, get rid of the Messiah - means killing Him. Those who appreciate God at the price of a potter, will not also appreciate the Messiah higher.