Acts 1:18
Now this man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out. Now this man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out.
The verse describes the death of Judas after he hanged himself for betraying Jesus, when his body fell and was horribly mangled, bursting asunder. The cord by which he had hanged himself broke and caused the fall, and three accounts specify that it broke under his weight. His remains lay at the foot of, or beneath, the tree. Dogs were devouring his body where it lay. His mangled body lay exposed until it was ordered buried, in one account ordered buried at once.
Judas betrayed innocent blood, Jesus, for silver, receiving a reward of thirty pieces of silver, which in his final confession of guilt he returned. His horrible, violent, dreadful death was the terrible retributive result and consequence of that betrayal, already visiting the guilty, and acting as Judas did brings a like reward. His fate made a deep impression and struck fear into the enemies of Christ and those who had helped condemn Jesus, so that they were afraid to lay hands on the disciples after Christ's ascension. Christ's patient bearing with Judas to the end made the outcome impressive enough to stay the hands of persecutors.
Together with the crucifixion, the resurrection from the dead, and the ascension to heaven, the death of Judas gave the disciples courage and placed them on vantage ground under Christ's promised presence to the end of the world. Instead of destroying all the apostles the persecutors put to death only Stephen, while God by the Holy Spirit converted five thousand in one day. The verse belongs to the account of the vacancy left by Judas, which the disciples filled by selecting Matthias as an apostle, a choice requiring careful judgment and prayerful reliance on God, who knows the hidden secrets of the heart.