Charles Ellicott Commentary 2 Kings 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." — 2 Kings 23:5 (ASV)

He put down. —Syriac and Arabic, he slew.

The idolatrous priests. —This refers to the kěmârîm, or black-robed priests (Hosea 10:5, of the priests of the calf-worship at Bethel). The term only occurs elsewhere in Zephaniah 1:4. Here, as in the passage from Hosea, the word denotes the unlawful priests of Jehovah, as contrasted with those of Baal, mentioned next.

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 it as one clad in black, that is, 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 accompaniment of false worship (Compare 2 Kings 17:17; 2 Kings 21:6).

It is a regular word for priest in Syriac (chûmrâ; Psalms 110:4; and the Epistle to the Hebrews, throughout).

To burn incense. —So Syriac, Vulgate, and Arabic. The Hebrew has, and he burned incense. It should probably be plural, as in the Vatican Septuagint and Targum.

In the places round about. — 1 Kings 6:29. Omit in the places.

To Baal, to the sun. —This could mean To the Baal, namely, to 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 Hebrew 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 a star as influencing human destiny, and so fate or fortune in the singular, and in the plural as the signs of the Zodiac (for example, Ecclesiastes 9:3; Esther 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 (Compare Arabic, manzal).