Who are the Chemarim / Chemarims in Zephaniah 1:4?

The hand of the Lord will be stretched out upon Judah and Jerusalem. The remnant of Baal will be cut off and the Chemarim, with the priests. Idolatry, whatever remains of it, should then be completely abolished. "Baal" was the idol of god of the Phoenicians and Canaanites; the word means "lord" or "possessor." With the worship of this god licentious practices were connected. Chemarim is the name of the idolatrous priests which conducted the high places, appointed for this service by the kings of Judah (2 Kings 23:5). In verses 5 and 6 other forms of idolatry are mentioned. They worshipped the hosts of the heavens from housetops. They worshipped the stars, and studied their movements as if they could give them help and a revelation. Astrology, so widely practiced among civilized nations today, is an old cult (2 Kings 21:3, 5; Jer. 8:2; 19:13). Others used the Holy Name of Jehovah, and at the same time they used the name of Malcham. All was a turning back from Jehovah and dishonoring His Name.

A Hebrew word signifying some class of 'priests.' Zeph. 1. 4; Hosea 10:5, margin. It is translated 'idolatrous priest' in 2 Kings 23:5. The derivation of the word is much disputed.

One of the chief gods of the Moabites and the Ammonites, the worship of which was introduced at Jerusalem by Solomon, and abolished by Josiah. Num. 21:29; Judges 11:24; 1 Kings 11:7, 33;

But there is more than that: — "I will also stretch out mine hand upon Judah, and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place, the name of the Chemarim that is, idolatrous priests only named besides in [2 Kings 23:5, Hosea 10:5, and supposed by Gesenius to be so designated from their black ecclesiastical dress] with the priests." What made this idolatry so offensive was the joining of the idols of the nations with Jehovah. To be what we might call a plain right-down idolater was not nearly so evil as to show that you know the true God and yet put false gods on a level with Him. Such an outrage against God as this is specially described here. "And them that worship the host of heaven upon the housetops; and them that worship and that swear to Jehovah, and that swear by Malcham." And certainly, to apply the principle to the present day, as we have just now been speaking of revivals such as Josiah's and their bearing on the future crisis of Christendom, as then on the crisis of Judah, this confusion is remarkably characteristic of both times. "And them that are turned back from Jehovah; and those that have not sought Jehovah, nor enquired for him." There might be both — two rather different classes — those on the one hand who owned Jehovah in a measure, and then had abandoned Him with slight and insult; and those on the other hand who never had been even outwardly awakened to care for Him or even enquire after Him. Then comes the warning. "Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord Jehovah: for the day of Jehovah is at hand: for Jehovah has prepared a sacrifice, he has bid his guests. And it shall come to pass in the day of Jehovah's sacrifice, that I will punish the princes, and the king's children, and all such as are clothed with strange apparel." He would begin with those who had the chief responsibility.

Zeph. 1. The prophecy opens with "I will utterly consume all things from off the land, saith Jehovah." God could see the followers of Baal still there, and the Chemarim (idolatrous priests, mentioned in 2 Kings 23:5 and Hosea 10:5, margin), and those who worshipped the host of heaven; and those that sware by Jehovah and by Malcham, or 'their king,' that is, Baal: cf. Jer. 49:1, margin. Judgement would surely overtake them, and their gold and silver should not deliver them in the great day of God's wrath upon the whole land of Judah and Jerusalem. Maktesh in Zeph. 1:11 is literally 'of a mortar' or 'hollow place' as in a rock (cf. Judges 15:19; Prov. 27:22, where the same Hebrew word occurs), probably signifying Jerusalem, where, as in a mortar, they would be pounded by their enemies.

In spite of that, a moral constraint upon souls is exercised by means of those who are faithful, even upon those who are in fact afar off from God. In 2 Chronicles 34:33 we see that Josiah "made to serve, all that were found in Israel — to serve Jehovah their God: all his days they did not depart from following Jehovah, the God of their fathers." It is thus that all the people here enter into the covenant. Amon had reestablished all that Manasseh had abolished at the time of his repentance. Josiah in his zeal for God and for God alone, quite different from Jehu's zeal, completely cleanses Jerusalem, Judah, and Israel, as far as his arm could reach. In the fields of Kidron he burns all the objects that had been accumulated in the temple for the worship of Baal, Astarte, and the stars, and carries their dust to Bethel, the initial site of Jeroboam's idolatry. He suppresses (v. 5; Zeph. 1:4) the Chemarim — the priests established by the kings of Judah to burn incense before false gods. He completely destroys the lewd statue of the goddess of love which had been set up in house of the Lord, and casts the powder of its ashes on the graves of those who had worshipped her. He does away with the prostitution which had been widespread at Jerusalem under guise of the worship of Astarte. He gathers together the priests who under repentant Manasseh had continued to offer sacrifices to the Lord upon the high places (2 Chr. 33:17). He does not treat them like the Chemarim, but does not allow them to go up to the altar of the Lord at Jerusalem. All fellowship with a religion which, even in being separated from idolatry, had dared to despise the only gathering center for the people, is resolutely broken. In this we find instruction for the day in which we live. This deed of Josiah's shows us that a true revival cannot be associated with worship which is not rendered around the Lord's Table, the only gathering center for His own. Nevertheless, Josiah acknowledges the right of these priests to eat "of the unleavened bread among their brethren" (v. 9). The individual holiness of those whom the Lord had consecrated is fully recognized, but for the moment, if not forever, their functioning in Israel's worship is not tolerated. Josiah furthermore abolishes the horses given to the sun and demolishes and burns the altars which had dared to replace God's only altar. In his zeal for the Lord he even attacks altars built by Solomon (v. 13).

I will also stretch out mine 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 Chemarims with the priests.

In this day of the Chaldean, on which we are now looking, with Zephaniah, everything, as it were, is judged. As in the Apocalyptic day, or as before the great white throne, all is judged personally or individually, so now in the light of the sword of Nebuchadnezzar, all is judged nationally. There is Judah, and there is Jerusalem; and the people around Edom, the Philistines, the Ammonites, the Ethiopians and the Assyrians; north, south, east, and west, all come in for this common and complete exposure, and that, too, in all its minute distinctions; the remnant of Baal, the name of the Chemarims with the priests, idolaters, those who swear by the Lord and by Malcham, the backsliders and the careless, and those who wear strange apparel, are all severally visited; and the candle of the Lord searches out those who are settled on their lees, and who despise the fear of judgment. Nothing escapes. All is naked and open to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. And the Judge of all the world does right; they that have deserved many stripes get them, while others are beaten with as few; for, God is no respecter of persons. He renders to every man according to his deeds.

A family of priests who bore this name. One had charge of the sixteenth course of priestly service, and some returned from exile, two of whom had married strange wives; but there is no genealogy of their descent from Aaron. 1 Chr. 9:12; 1 Chr. 24:14; Ezra 2:37; Ezra 10:20; Neh. 7:40; Neh. 11:13; Jer. 20:1.