Matthew 27:5

Matthew 27:5. Flung down, with violence.

In the sanctuary, i.e., ‘the holy place.' Either he stood just outside and spoke to the priests, who were in the holy place, or in his despair had even entered this forbidden place. In God's temple lay the money for which God's Son had been sold to death, as a testimony against the Jews.

And departed. Lange thinks into solitude, as if to lead a hermit's life, a frequent effect of remorse; but it probably refers to the terror which drove him away, as if from danger. And went away. Probably from the temple, or from his retirement, if he did retire.

Hanged himself. This is to be taken literally, and occurred shortly afterwards. Peter, a few weeks afterwards (Acts 1:18-19), speaks of his death as well known. That passage shows that the suicide took place in the field spoken of in Matthew 27:7-8; supposed to have been ‘on the steep face of the southern hill, opposite Mount Zion, which bounds the valley of Hinnom.' It would seem that Judas hanged himself over the precipice, fell headlong in consequence of the rope or branch breaking, struck on one of the sharp projecting rocks so common there, and lay ‘burst asunder' in the field below, which he may be said to have ‘obtained' (Acts 1:18), because it was bought with his ‘reward of iniquity,' and he himself the first one buried there. Matthew's account is part of a history, Luke's account part of a speech to those who were acquainted with the facts. The former naturally brings into prominence the conduct of the priests, the latter looks at the death of Judas in the light of the Apostleship he had lost.