Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, “What are you willing to give me if I deliver Him to you?” And they counted out to him thirty pieces of silver. So from that time he sought opportunity to betray Him.
In love with the love of money, scheming Judas the knave deceptively premeditated his betrayal of You, the Treasure of Life, O Lord. Thus intoxicated, he scurries to those villains, the leaders of the Jews, and he says, “What will you give me to betray Him to you, for you to crucify Him?”
Ungrateful and jealous did wicked Judas prove to be, reckoning the value of the gift befitting God, and through which a debt of sinfulness was forgiven; for the scoundrel thought that he could traffic in the God-loving favor. “Spare our Souls, O Christ our God, and save us, we Pray.”
Going to the rulers who did not uphold the Law, Judas says to them, “What will you give to me if I deliver Christ to you who seek Him and wish to kill Him?” In exchange for money he rejected his relationship with Christ. “Spare our Souls, O Christ our God, and save us, we Pray.”
O pitiless man, alas, your blinding avarice! Therefore you forgot what you were taught, that all the world is not equal in value to a single Soul. For you fell into despair and hanged yourself and choked to death, O betrayer. Spare our Souls, O Christ our God, and save us, we Pray.
The council of unlawful men now assembles to bring idle charges against You with malice, to rule on Your conviction, and to condemn You, O Christ. We sing to You and say, “You are our God, and no one is Holy but You, O Lord.”
Today, the wicked council of the unlawful, whose soul opposes God, confers in order to kill the Righteous One, as inconvenient. O Christ, we sing to You and say, “You are our God, and no one is Holy but You, O Lord.”