Albert Barnes Commentary Zephaniah 1:4

"And I will stretch out my hand upon Judah, and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place, [and] the name of the Chemarim with the priests;" — Zephaniah 1:4 (ASV)

I will also stretch out Mine Hand – As before on Egypt. Judah had gone in the ways of Egypt and learned her sins, and sinned worse than Egypt. The mighty Hand and stretched-out Arm (Jeremiah 2:10–11), with which she had been delivered, will be again stretched out, yet, not for her but upon her, upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. In this threatened destruction of all, Judah and Jerusalem are singled out, because judgment shall begin at the house of God (1 Peter 4:17; Jeremiah 25:29). Those who have sinned against the greater grace will be most signally punished. Yet, the punishment of those whom God had so chosen and loved is an earnest of the general judgment. This too is not a partial but a general judgment upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

And I will cut off the remnant of Baal – that is, to the very last vestige of it. Isaiah unites name and residue (Isaiah 14:22), as equivalents, together with the proverbial, posterity and descendant. Zephaniah distributes them in parallel clauses, the residue of Baal and the name of the Chemarim. Good and evil have each a root, which remains in the ground, when the trunk has been hewn down. There is a remnant according to the election of grace, when the rest have been blinded (Romans 11:5), (Romans 11:7); and this is a holy seed (Isaiah 6:13) to carry on the line of God. Evil too has its remnant, which, unless diligently kept down, shoots up again, after the conversion of peoples or individuals.

The mind of the flesh remains in the regenerate also. The prophet foretells the complete excision of the whole remnant of Baal, which was fulfilled in it after the captivity, and will be fulfilled as to all which it shadows forth, in the Day of Judgment. From this place; for in their frenzy, they dared to bring the worship of Baal into the very temple of the Lord (2 Kings 23:4). Ribera: “Who would ever believe that in Jerusalem, the holy city, and in the very temple idols should be consecrated? Whoever sees the ways of our times will readily believe it. For among Christians and in the very temple of God, the abominations of the pagan are worshiped. Riches, pleasures, honors, are they not idols which Christians prefer to God Himself?”

And the name of the Chemarim with the priests – Of the idolatrous priests the very name will be cut off, as God promises by Hosea, that He will take away the names of Baalim (Hosea 2:17), and by Zechariah, that He will cut off the names of the idols out of the land (Zechariah 13:2). Yet this is more. Not the name only of the Chemarim, but themselves with their name, their posterity, will be blotted out; still more, it is God who cuts off all memory of them, blotting them out of the book of the living and out of His own.

They had but a name before, that they were living, but were dead (Revelation 3:1). Jerome: “The Lord will take away names of vain glory, wrongly admired, out of the Church; indeed, the very names of the priests with the priests who vainly flatter themselves with the name of Bishops and the dignity of Presbyters without their deeds. Therefore he pointedly says, not, and the deeds of priests with the priests, but the names; who only bear the false name, of dignities, and with evil works destroy their own names.”

The priests are priests of the Lord, who live not like priests, corrupt in life and doctrine and corrupters of God’s people (Jeremiah 5:31). The judgment is pronounced alike on what was intrinsically evil, and on good which had corrupted itself into evil.

The title of priest is nowhere given to the priest of a false god without some mention in the context implying that they were idolatrous priests; as the priests of Dagon (1 Samuel 5:5), of the high places as ordained by Jeroboam (1 Kings 13:2, 1 Kings 13:33; 2 Kings 23:20; 2 Chronicles 11:15), of Baal (2 Kings 10:19; 2 Kings 11:18; 2 Chronicles 23:17), of Bethel (Amos 7:10), of Ahab (2 Kings 10:11), of those who were not gods (2 Chronicles 13:9), of On, where the sun was worshiped. The priests then were God’s priests, who in the evil days of Manasseh had manifoldly corrupted their life or their faith, and who were still evil.

The priests of Judah, with its kings, its princes, and the people of the land, were in Jeremiah’s inaugural vision enumerated as those, who shall, God says, fight against thee, but shall not prevail against thee (Jeremiah 1:18–19). The priests said not, Where is the Lord? and they that handle the law knew Me not (Jeremiah 2:7–8). In the general corruption, A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land, the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule at their hands (Jeremiah 5:30–31): the children of Israel and the children of Judah, their kings, their princes, their priests, and their prophets, and the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, have turned unto Me the back, and not the face (Jeremiah 32:32–33).

Jeremiah speaks specifically of heavy moral sins. From the prophet even unto the priest everyone dealeth falsely (Jeremiah 6:13; Jeremiah 8:10); both prophet and priest are profane (Jeremiah 23:11); for the sins of her prophets, the iniquities of her (Lamentations 4:13). And Isaiah says of her sensuality: the priests and the prophets have erred through strong drink; they are swallowed up of wine; they are out of the way through strong drink (Isaiah 28:7).