2 Kings 23:5 - Exposition

And he put down the idolatrous priests ; literally, the chemarim . The same word is used of idolatrous priests in Hosea 10:5 and Zephaniah 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 ( כֹּהֲנִים ) 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 re-established the high places ( 2 Kings 21:3 , 2 Kings 21:21 ), they should have followed the custom of the Israelite monarchs at Dan and Bethel ( 1 Kings 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 2 Kings 21:3 ; on the sun-worship, compare below, 2 Kings 21:11 ; 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. The proper meaning of the term is "mansions;" or "houses," the zodiacal signs being regarded as the "mansions of the sun" by the Babylonians. And to all the host of heaven (see the comment on 2 Kings 21:3 ).