And they took counsel
With one another, considered of the matter, and deliberated about
it a while; and at last came to a resolution,
and bought with them the potter's field, to bury strangers
in:
a field of no great value, or it could not have been bought so
near Jerusalem for so small a sum as thirty pieces of silver.
Grotius's conjecture seems to be a good one, that it was a field
the potter had dug up for his use, and had made the most of it;
so that it was good for nothing, but for the purpose for which
these men bought it, "to bury strangers in": either such as were
not of their own nation, as the Roman soldiers, many of which
were among them, and who they did not suffer to be buried among
them; or proselytes, or such as came from distant parts, at their
three festivals, many of whom may be supposed to die at such
times: now by this act of humanity in providing for the interment
of strangers, they designed, and hoped to have covered their
wickedness in bargaining with Judas to betray innocent blood, for
this sure of money; but it was so ordered by divine providence,
that this became a public and lasting memorial of their sin and
infamy: for it follows,
