2 Kings 23:5

2Ki 23:5 And he put down the idolatrous priests, whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah, and in the places round about Jerusalem; them also that burned incense unto Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of heaven.

Ver. 5. And he put down the idolatrous priests.] Heb., Chemarims, Baal’s chimney-chaplains, {see Zep 1:14, with the note there} black sooty fellows, like those greasy mass priests, or abbey lubbers, amongst the Papists.

And to the planets.] Or, Influences: a radice Nazal fluxit.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2Ki 23:5. He put down the idolatrous priests — כמרים, chemarim. Their particular business, as appears from this place, was to burn incense. Hence it is thought by some, that the faithful Jews gave them this name by way of contempt, as being continually scorched by their fumigating fires. But, according to Bishop Patrick, they were so called from being clothed in black: for the Egyptians, as well as many other pagan nations; made use of black garments when they sacrificed to the infernal deities: in opposition to which the Jewish priests were clothed with white at their sacrifices.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

23:5-7 Josiah stopped the idolatrous priests from officiating over pagan rituals. He also demolished the living quarters of the cult prostitutes. Manasseh and Amon apparently had allowed the prostitution carried over from Canaanite practices (see 1 Kgs 14:24; 15:12; 22:46) to be practiced within the Temple itself.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Meaning, the priests of Baal, which were called Chemarims, either because they wore black garments, or else were smoked with burning incense to idols.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

put down the idolatrous priests--Hebrew, chemarim, "scorched," that is, Guebres, or fire-worshippers, distinguished by a girdle (Eze 23:14-17) or belt of wool and camel's hair, twisted round the body twice and tied with four knots, which had a symbolic meaning, and made it a supposed defense against evil.

them also that burned incense unto Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, &c.--or Baal-shemesh, for Baal was sometimes considered the sun. This form of false worship was not by images, but pure star-worship, borrowed from the old Assyrians.

and--rather, "even to all the host of heaven."

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 5. The idolatrous priests] הכמרים hakkemarim. Who these were is not well known. The Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic, call them the priests simply, which the kings of Judah had ordained. Probably they were an order made by the idolatrous kings of Judah, and called kemarim, from כמר camar, which signifies to be scorched, shrivelled together, made dark, or black, because their business was constantly to attend sacrificial fires, and probably they were black garments; hence the Jews in derision call Christian ministers kemarim, because of their black clothes and garments. Why we should imitate, in our sacerdotal dress, those priests of Baal, is strange to think and hard to tell.

Unto Baal, to the sun] Though Baal was certainly the sun, yet here they are distinguished; Baal being worshipped under different forms and attributes, Baal-peor, Baal-zephon, Baal-zebub, c.

The planets] מזלות mazzaloth. The Vulgate translates this the twelve signs, i.e., the zodiac. This is as likely as any of the other conjectures which have been published relative to this word. See a similar word Job 37:9; Job 38:32.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(5) He put down.—Syriac and Arabic, he slew.

The idolatrous priests.—The kìmârîm, or black-robed priests (Hos_10:5, of the priests of the calf-worship at Beth-el). Only occurring besides in Zep_1:4. Here, as in the passage of Hosea, the word denotes the unlawful priests of Jehovah, as contrasted with those of the Baal, mentioned in the next place. Whether the term really means black-robed, as Kimchi explains, is questionable. Priests used to wear white throughout the ancient world, except on certain special occasions. Gesenius derives it from a root meaning black, but explains, one clad in black, i.e., a mourner, an ascetic, and so a priest. Perhaps the true derivation is from another root, meaning to weave: weaver of spells or charms; as magic was an invariable concomitant of false worship. (Comp. 2Ki_17:17; 2Ki_21:6.) It is a regular word for priest in Syriac (chûmrâ; Psa_110:4; and the Ep. to the Heb., passim.)

To burn incense.—So Syriac, Vulg., and Arabic. The Hebrew has, and he burnt incense. Probably it should be plural, as in the Vatican LXX. and Targum.

In the places round about.—1Ki_6:29. Omit in the places.

Unto Baal, to the sun.—Unto the Baal, to wit, unto the sun. But it is better to supply and with all the versions. Bel and Samas were distinct deities in the Assyro-Babylonian system. When Reuss remarks that “the knowledge of the old Semitic worships, possessed by the Hebrew historians, appears to have been very superficial, for Baal and the sun are one and the same deity,” he lays himself open to the same charge.

The planets.—Or, the signs of the Zodiac. The Heb. is mazzalôth, probably a variant form of mazzarôth (Job_38:32). The word is used in the Targums, and by rabbinical writers, in the sense of star, as influencing human destiny, and so fate, fortune, in the singular, and in the plural of the signs of the Zodiac (e.g., Ecc_9:3; Est_3:7). It is, perhaps, derived from ’azar, “to gird,” and means “belt,” or “girdle;” or from ’azal, “to journey,” and so means “stages” of the sun’s course in the heavens. (Comp. Arab, manzal.)

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

5. the idolatrous priests] The Hebrew has a special name (Chemarim) for these priests, and the most generally accepted derivation of the word is from a root meaning ‘black’, which may have been the colour of the robes used by these priests, though we are never told of black-robed priests in the Old Testament. In Hos_10:5 the name is applied to the priests of the calves, and we may almost be certain that these were in dress made to look as much like those in the temple at Jerusalem as possible. The only other place where the name is found is Zep_1:4 where the words also refer to this false worship in Judah. The Syriac cognate word is used in the N. Test. for the ordinary Jewish priests, so that perhaps some notion of ministerial solemnity, rather than the mere idea of colour, is attached to the name.

whom the kings of Judah had ordained] The use of Chemarim in Hos_10:5 for the priests of the calves might lead to the supposition that the ordination here spoken of was an introduction of calf-worship into Judah. We have however no definite statement that this was ever done. Perhaps as Chemarim had become the name of the irregular priests in Israel, who offered to Jehovah but before the calves, the term came into use for all such priests as served at the high places in the way mentioned 2Ch_33:17 ‘The people did sacrifice still in the high places, yet unto the Lord their God only’.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And he brought out the grove from the house of the Lord,.... Not a real grove of trees, but a carved one, as some think; or rather the image of the grove, Kg2 21:7 that is, the idol Ashtoreth, or Astarte, which was set up there; so Theodoret says; some interpreters call it Astoreth, the name of Venus, whom they call Astarte: this Josiah ordered to be brought

without Jerusalem, unto the brook Kidron, and burnt it at the brook Kidron; the black brook, where the filth of the sacrifices was carried:

and stamped it small to powder; as Moses did the golden calf:

and cast the powder thereof upon the graves of the children of the people; the common people, see Jer 26:23 or rather on the graves of the worshippers of idols, as it seems from Ch2 34:4 the Targum is,"on the graves of the children of Galia,''which, Kimchi says, is the name of an idol; this was done partly in contempt of the idol, groves being, according to law, impure; and partly to the reproach of the deceased, and the memory of them, for their idolatry, and to deter from it those that survived them.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Soothsayers. Protestants, "the idolatrous priests." Grotius thinks that camilli, or "ministers of the gods," (Serv.[Servius?] and Varro. vi.) may be derived from the Hebrew hacemarim, "the black-vested," or cryers. The Rabbins give this title in derision to the religious of the Christian Church. There were some melanophori, or people "in black," who honoured Isis, or the moon, by this dress; as if to condole with her on the absence of the sun. Plutarch Apuleius describes a shining black veil, which was carried in the procession of her statue. --- Baal. Hebrew, "to Baal the son;" (Calmet) or rather, "to Baal, to the son." (Haydock) --- The Hebrew mazatoth, (Calmet) Septuagint Mazouroth (Haydock) is not better understood. St. Jerome translates signs of the zodiac; others have, influences, planets, Lucifer, Venus, &c. Job (xxxviii. 32.) designates some stars by the name of Mozruth, and Mozrim. (Calmet)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

The idolatrous priests, Heb. the chemarim; which were ministers of idols, Hos 10:5, distinct from the priests, Zep 1:4. Possibly they were the highest rank of priests, because they are here employed in the highest work, which was to burn incense.

Baal; a particular god, of greatest esteem with them, so called; though elsewhere the name of Baal is common to all false gods.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

5. Put down — The margin is better, he caused to cease; he set them aside by prohibiting their idolatrous service, and destroying all their places of worship.

The idolatrous priests — The chemarim, (כמרים,) These are mentioned again at Hos_10:5, and Zep_1:4, where they seem to be the priests of the calf-worship. Here they are described as those whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places, and are distinguished from the priests of Baal and other idolaters. Of the word chemarim, over which there has been dispute, Furst says: “The application to idolatrous priests is obviously only a Hebrew peculiarity, since the Syriac chumero denotes any priest; and it is a question how this designation is united with the meaning of the stem. According to Kimchi, the idolatrous priest is so named from his gloomy, black dress; or, from the Syriac meaning of the stem, to mourn, then, to be an ascetic. But if a particular fundamental signification of the stem should be assumed for this noun, it would be appropriate to take כמר=עמר, (Arabic, amar, coluit deum,) and accordingly כמרwould be a serving one, a servant, like כהן, priest, in its fundamental meaning.”

To the sun, and to the moon — The worship of Baal was really a worship of the sun and moon, for these luminaries were the real gods represented by Baal and Ashtoreth. See note on Jdg_2:13.

The planets — מזלות, synonymous with מזרותof Job_38:32, stands for the twelve signs or constellations of the zodiac, which the ancients conceived of as so many stations of the sun in his course through the heavens. “In Arabic the twelve stations are called twelve palaces of the sun, and the zodiac is named the circle of palaces.” — Furst.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And he put down the idolatrous priests; literally, the chemarim. The same word is used of idolatrous priests in Hos_10:5 Zep_1:4. It is best connected with the Arabic root chamar, colere deum, and with the Syriac cumro, "priest" or "sacrificer." The Syrian priests were probably so called at the time, and the Hebrews took the word, and applied it to all false priests or idolatrous priests, reserving their own cohanim ( for true Jehovistic priests only. Whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah, and in the places round about Jerusalem. This practice had not been mentioned previously, and can scarcely have belonged to the earlier kingdom of Judah, when the people" (as we are told so often) "worshipped and burnt incense in the high places." But it is quite in harmony with the other doings of Manasseh and Amen, that, when they reestablished the high places, (2Ki_21:3, 2Ki_21:21) they should have followed the custom of the Israelite monarchs at Dan and Bethel, (1Ki_12:28-32) and have "ordained priests" to conduct the worship at them. Them also that burned incense unto Baal, to the sun, and to the moon (on the Baal-worship of Manasseh and Amen, see 2Ki_21:3; on the sun-worship, compare below, ver. 11; the moon-worship was probably a form of the worship of Astarte), and to the planets; rather, to the twelve signs. The constellations or signs of the zodiac are, no doubt, intended. (comp. Job_38:32, where the term twOdZm may be regarded as a mere variant form of the twOlZm of this passage) The proper meaning of the term is "mansions;" or "houses," the zodiacal signs being regarded as the "mansions of the sun" by the Babylonians (see "Ancient Monarchies," vol. 3. p. 419). And to all the host of heaven (see the comment on 2Ki_21:3)

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Priests - Hebrew. the Chemarim; the highest rank of priests, employed in the highest work, which was to burn incense.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

And who had burned incense on the high places. And those who burned incense on the high places in the cities of Yehudah.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.