What does Matthew 27:9 mean?
Verses 9 and 10 take an approach to Old Testament Scripture which seems to lose something in translation. Matthew begins by saying that the purchase of the potter's field for the price of thirty pieces of silver is the direct fulfillment of prophecy (Matthew 27:3–8). He credits this, in literal terms, to Jeremiah. Jeremiah 19:1–13 deals with these same themes. However, the exact words Matthew cites seem to come almost directly from Zechariah 11:12–13.Scholars suggest that Matthew blended the two prophecies and mentioned only the more prominent of the two prophets. Apparently, this was not an unheard-of practice. Mark 1:2–3 does something similar, mentioning the prophet Isaiah, but quoting from both Isaiah and Malachi. The primary point Matthew means to show is that this was yet another moment in the story of Jesus which was alluded to hundreds of years earlier by the prophets.
The designated amount of thirty pieces of silver was a reference to the market value of a maimed slave (Exodus 21:32).