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Zep_1:4 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;
Ver. 4. I will also stretch out mine hand upon Judah] To whom I have so long stretched out my hand in vain to reclaim them, Isa_65:2 Pro_1:25. If God do but put forth his hand to afflict, as Satan solicited him to do against Job, Job_1:11; Job_2:5, who can abide it? but if he stretch it out as here, woe be to those that must feel the weight of it! His hand is a mighty hand, 1Pe_5:6, the same that spans the heavens, and holds the earth as a very little thing, Isa_40:15. "Lord," saith David (who had felt it in part), "who knoweth the power of thine anger? Even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath." q.d. Let a man fear thee never so much, he is sure to feel thee much more who falleth under the stroke of thine heavy hand. Oh keep out of his fingers, who can crush us to death before the moth, Job_4:19.
And upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem] Who are therefore worse than others because they should be better; and shall fare the worse for their external privileges wherein they glory.
And I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place] That which remained since Josiah’s reformation, 2Ki_23:3-5, saith Diodati, shall a nation be born at once? Isa_66:8.
And the name of the Chemarims] Baal’s chimney chaplains, they are translated idolatrous priests, 1Ch_23:5. But because we find them here mentioned as distinct from the priests, therefore many expositors hold that they were certain ministers of their idolatry different from the priests; such as the monks are among the Papists. The Vulgate rendereth it Aedituos, underlings to the other priests: Elias in Tisby, saith they were such as were shut up in cloisters, Chemarim Atrati they are called, either from their black garments, or because they were smutched with burning incense, or from the brandmarks they had superstitiously set upon their bodies, or because of their pretended fiery zeal and fervency in their religion, such as are the Sacrifici Seraphici among the Papists, who falsely and foolishly call them the lights of the world, sc. to light them into utter darkness.