Now, Judas who betrayed his Lord, was with the mob; but all the time he thought that Jesus would assert his power and demonstrate the strength of God that he possessed, and strike to earth the fiendish multitudes and free himself; 2 But when he saw his master on the ground and bleeding from a score of wounds, he said, 3 O God, what have I done? I have betrayed the son of God; the curse of God will rest upon my soul. 4 And then he turned and ran with haste until he reached the temple door; he found the priests, who gave to him the thirty silver pieces to betray the Lord, and said, 5 Take back your bribe; it is the cost price of my soul; I have betrayed the son of God. 6 The priests replied, That matters not to us. 7 Then Judas threw the silver on the floor, and, bowed with grief, he went away, and on a ledge beyond the city’s walls he hanged himself and died. 8 In time the fastenings gave way, his body fell into the Hinnon vale and after many days they found it there a shapeless mass. 9 The rulers could not put the price of blood into the treasury, and so they took the thirty silver pieces with which they bought a potter’s field, 10 Where they might bury those who had no rights to lie within their sacred burial grounds. 11 And there they put the body of the man who sold his Lord. CHAPTER 170. _The crucifixion. Jesus prays for his murderers. Pilate puts an inscription above the cross. Jesus speaks words of encouragement to the penitent thief. Commits to John the care of his mother and Miriam. The soldiers divide his garments among themselves._ The Jewish mob pushed on toward Calvary and as they went the Marys, Miriam, and other women not a few, were close beside the Lord. 2 They wept aloud. When Jesus saw them weeping and lamenting thus he said, 3 Weep not for me, for though I go away, go through the gateway of the cross, yet on the next day of the sun, lift up your hearts, for I will meet you at the sepulchre. 4 The great procession came to Calvary. The Roman soldiers had already bound the two state prisoners to the cross. 5 (They were not nailed, but simply bound.) 6 Four soldiers of the Roman guard that Herod brought from Galilee were called to execute the orders of the court. 7 These were the men who had been set apart to torture Jesus and secure from him confession of his guilt. 8 These were the men who scourged him, put a crown of thorns upon his head, a broken reed into his hands, and wrapped him in a royal robe, and bowed in mockery, before him as a king. 9 These soldiers took the Lord and stripped him, laid him on the cross and would have bound him there with cords; but this would not suffice. 10 The cruel Jews were near with hammer and with nails; they cried, not cords, but nails; drive fast the nails and hold him to the cross. 11 And then the soldiers took the nails and drove them through his feet and hands.