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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comJamieson Fausset Brown Commentary - Zephaniah 1:4 - 1:4
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
stretch out mine hand - indicating some remarkable and unusual work of vengeance (Isa 5:25; Isa 9:12, Isa 9:17, Isa 9:21).
Judah - including Benjamin. These two tribes are to suffer, which thought themselves perpetually secure, because they escaped the captivity in which the ten tribes were involved.
Jerusalem - the fountainhead of the evil. God begins with His sanctuary (Eze 9:6), and those who are nigh Him (Lev 10:3).
the remnant of Baal - the remains of Baal worship, which as yet Josiah was unable utterly to eradicate in remote places. Baal was the Phoenician tutelary god. From the time of the Judges (Jdg 2:13), Israel had fallen into this idolatry; and Manasseh lately had set up this idol within Jehovah’s temple itself (2Ki 21:3, 2Ki 21:5, 2Ki 21:7). Josiah began his reformation in the twelfth year of his reign (2Ch 34:4, 2Ch 34:8), and in the eighteenth had as far as possible completed it.
Chemarims - idol priests, who had not reached the age of puberty; meaning “ministers of the gods” [Servius on Aeneid, 11], the same name as the Tyrian Camilli, r and l being interchangeable (compare Hos 10:5, Margin). Josiah is expressly said (2Ki 23:5, Margin) to have “put down the Chemarim.” The Hebrew root means “black” (from the black garments which they wore or the marks which they branded on their foreheads); or “zealous,” from their idolatrous fanaticism. The very “name,” as well as themselves, shall be forgotten.
the priests - of Jehovah, of Aaronic descent, who ought to have used all their power to eradicate, but who secretly abetted, idolatry (compare Zep 3:4; Eze 8:1-18; Eze 22:26; Eze 44:10). From the priests Zephaniah passes to the people.