27:9 spoken by Jeremy the prophet. This event seems to be a partial fulfillment of the prophecy in Zechariah 11:13, although the reference is only a general statement, rather than an actual quote. The main point of the reference is to explain the use of the money to buy the potter’s field, a fact not prophesied by Zechariah (see Matthew 27:6-8,10). Jeremiah, however, does mention buying a field for silver (Jeremiah 32:6-9), and Matthew conceivably could have had both passages in mind, giving Jeremiah priority for the general idea, since he was the major prophet of the two. Probably a better explanation, however, is to take literally the statement that this prophecy had been spoken (rather than written) by Jeremiah. Many years later, Zechariah could have adapted some of the same language, handed down from Jeremiah by oral transmission (both men were priests), into his own prophecy concerning the value of the payment price.