What Does 2 Kings 23:5 Mean?

(5) **He put down.**—Syriac and Arabic, *he slew*. **The idolatrous priests.**—The *kěmārîm*, or *black-robed* priests (Hosea 10:5, of the priests of the calf-worship at Beth-el). Only occurring besides in Zephaniah 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. 2Kings 17:17; 2Kings 21:6.) It is a regular word for priest in Syriac (chûmrâ; Psalm 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.**—1Kings 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*., 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. (Comp. Arab, *manzal*.)