Matthew 27:5

‘And he cast down the pieces of silver into the sanctuary, and departed, and he went away and hanged himself.'.

Having failed to persuade the Chief Priests to accept the money back, which would have been tantamount to thereby admitting that they shared his guilt, Judas took the next best step and brought the money to the Sanctuary. It was a recognised method of repudiating a transaction that when the price could not be handed back to the original party to a contract within the deadline contained in the contract, it could instead be paid over to the Temple, who would hold it on the missing recipient's behalf. Perhaps Judas had this in mind. If they would not receive the money, then he would make them take it. So he approached the Sanctuary and hurled the thirty pieces of silver down, possibly through the very doorway of the Sanctuary. It was not quite in accordance with official procedure, but it was the only way that he could at least partly purge his screaming conscience. And then he abruptly left and went and hanged himself.

There is a vivid description of the result of this hanging in Acts 1:18, which suggests that he hung himself by putting the rope round his neck and jumping over a precipice or from a tree, with the awful result that the rope broke and his body crashed to the ground and ‘burst open'. Alternately as his body hung there the hot sun might have brought about a quick decomposition of the body (no one would want to touch a dead body during the Feast until it was absolutely necessary, whatever the other requirements) so that it may have rotted, and thus eventually have fallen with awful results. It was the kind of thing that would be seen as a sign from God, although that is only hinted at, not stated. Note the contrast with the careful anointing and burial of the body of Jesus (Matthew 26:6; Matthew 27:57). Judas was left accursed, but God was watching over His Son.

‘And he departed (anechowresen) and went (apelthown).' There may be a reflection here of Matthew 2:22, ‘he departed (anechowresen) -- and went (elthown). For as we have seen Matthew 27:3 probably reflects Matthew 2:16, and both these passages centre on quotations from Jeremiah.

‘Hanged himself.' He had accepted Jesus' verdict that it would have been better if he had not been born (Matthew 26:24).