Zephaniah 1:4

I will also stretch out mine hand upon Judah,.... Under whom the tribe of Benjamin is comprehended, which are only designed; the ten tribes having been carried captive in Hezekiah's time many years

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; I will

I will also, Heb. And I will, or, And I have; so prophets speak of what shall most certainly be as if already done. Stretch out mine hand: this seems to intimate. some immediate stroke from God, he speaks so in 14:13 25:13. Upon Judah; Benjamin is included, though Judah only is named. Upon all the inhabitants; it will be universal destruction of them, either by sword, famine, pestilence, or captivity; both citizens and sojourners, all shall perish, or suffer by some or other of these ways. Of Jerusalem: though it was the holy city, beautified with the temple of God, yet all should not secure it, . I will cut off the remnant of Baal; whatsoever remains of the idolatry of Baal, both the idols, their temples, sacrifices, priests, ornaments, and worshippers: whether this refers to times after the reformation by Josiah, or to times before it, needs not scrupulously be inquired into. From this place: this idolatry had filled Jerusalem itself. The names; both the persons, and the memory of them also, for names includeth both. The Chemarims; either called so from their black garments they went in, or from their swarthy colour accustomed by the black smoke of incense, which they were almost continually in; or door-keepers, sextons of Baal; or voluntary servants; or such as the popish monks, some ministers of Baal distinct from the priests. The priests; either the priests of Baal, or the apostates of Aaron’ s house, who (though priests by birth and office) should have been stedfast to, but had fallen from the true God and his worship to Baal and his worship.

Zephaniah 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, Isaiah 65:2 Proverbs 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, 1 Peter 5:6, the same that spans the heavens, and holds the earth as a very little thing, Isaiah 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, 2 Kings 23:3-5, saith Diodati, shall a nation be born at once? Isaiah 66:8. And the name of the Chemarims] Baal’ s chimney chaplains, they are translated idolatrous priests, 1 Chronicles 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.

(4) The remnant of Baal.—i.e., Baal worship shall he completely and utterly abolished. Not even a remnant of it shall be left. The term “remnant” need not imply, as Kleinert argues, that a large part of the Baal-worship had been already overthrown, by Josiah’s reformation. The Chemarims.—In 2 Kings 23:5, this is the designation of the “idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places.” The term is used again in Hosea 10:5. Even the very name of these intruders is to be abolished. The priests.—Are probably a certain section of the Jewish priesthood who had winked at this establishment of false worship.

Verse 4. I will cut off the remnant of Baal] I think he refers here, partly at least, to the reformation which Josiah was to bring about. See the account, 2Kg 23:5. The Chemarims] The black-robed priests of different idols. 2Kg 23:5. These were put down by Josiah.

4. The prophet turns to Judah and Jerusalem. Though the Day of the Lord was the revelation of Jehovah to the world, and therefore a thing universal, the centre of the judgment in the view of the pre-exile prophets was Israel (Amos 1, 2; Isaiah 2, 3), for judgment began at the house of God (Amos 3:2). With the exile the judgment on Israel seemed to have been fulfilled, and during the exile and later the judgment of the Day of the Lord is represented as falling on the heathen world (Isaiah 13; Zechariah 1-6), and its issue is Israel’s redemption. But after the Restoration, when Israel was again a people and far from answering to its ideal, prophets have to threaten it anew with the refiner’s fire of the Day of the Lord (Malachi 3:2 ff.). I will also stretch] And I will stretch out my hand, i.e. in order to smite, Isaiah 5:25; Isaiah 9:12; Isaiah 14:26-27. As in Amos 1, 2 the cloud laden with judgment trails round the horizon, discharging itself on one nation after another, and finally settles over Israel, so here Jehovah’s wrath against all created things concentrates itself on Judah and Jerusalem. the remnant of Baal from this place] The words “from this place” imply that Zephaniah lived in Jerusalem. The term Baal appears to he used, particularly in later writers, not only of Baal proper, but also of the images of Jehovah, and even in a wider way of Jehovah under any false conception of His being. Worship rendered nominally to Jehovah, but unworthy of Him, and implying an inadequate conception of His nature, was stigmatised as Baal-worship. The expression the remnant, besides its natural sense of “that which is left,” may mean “the whole,” so that “remnant of Baal” may have the sense of “false worship wholly” (Isaiah 14:22), and this is probably the meaning here. For “remnant” Sept. gives names of Baal, a rendering which may be due to the influence of Hos 2:17, “I will take away the names of the Baalim out of her mouth.” Cf. Zechariah 13:2. the name of the Chemarims] The A.V. plur. Chemarims is of the same sort as Cherubims (Genesis 3:24) and Seraphims (Isaiah 6:2); in Heb. the word Chemarim (pronounced Kemârim) is itself a plural. The term is derived from an Aramaic root, meaning “to be black,” but whether the priests were so named as “black-robed” or for some other reason is not certain. In addition to the present passage the word is used in Hosea 10:5 of the priests of the calves in the northern kingdom, and in 2 Kings 23:5 of the priests of the high places in the cities of Judah and outside Jerusalem (A.V. idolatrous priests). In the latter passage the construction leaves it somewhat uncertain whether the strictly idolatrous priests who offered sacrifice to Baal, the sun and the moon, be also included among the Chemarim. In Hosea 10:5 the Sept.

I will also stretch out Mine Hand - As before on Egypt . Judah had gone in the ways of Egypt and learned her sins, and sinned worse than Egypt.

4. Stretch out mine hand — To smite (Isaiah 5:25; Isaiah 9:12 ff.). Equivalent to “turn my hand against” (see on Amos 1:8).