What does Matthew 27:12 mean?

Matthew's book is full of the words of Jesus. In His teaching, Jesus spoke paragraph after paragraph of great and hard truth. His teaching was wise and powerful and weighty. Now, though, Jesus knows that the time for teaching has passed. Since being arrested (Matthew 26:47–56) His most common response to accusations and abuse has been silence. He does not resist. He knows He is bound for the cross to die for the sins of humanity, and He is not trying to escape it. What needs to have been said and done is obvious. His enemies know the truth about His teaching; they lie anyway to have Him killed (Matthew 26:59–65). The Roman governor, who can see clearly that Jesus is innocent (Matthew 27:18) will soon ignore justice for the sake of stability (Matthew 27:24).

This is why Isaiah prophesied the Messiah would be silent: "He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth" (Isaiah 53:7).

It bothered Pilate that Jesus would not defend Himself against the repeated accusations of the chief priests and elders. How was He to decide if Jesus was worthy of death or not if Jesus would not respond? Details in other gospels, combined with Matthew, suggest that Pilate might have hoped to catch those religious leaders in their own lies (John 19:10–11).