Zephaniah 1:5

And upon them that worship the host of heaven upon the house tops,.... The sun, moon, and stars, which some worshipped upon their house tops; the roofs of their houses being flat, as the roofs of the

And them that worship the host of heaven upon the housetops; and them that worship and that swear by the LORD, and that swear by Malcham; And them that worship the host of heaven - Saba: whence, in

And them that worship; those among the people that adhered to this idolatry. The host of heaven; the sun, moon, and stars, frequently in the Scripture called the host of heaven. Upon the house-tops; openly, as the manner of those idolaters was, either because they thought those deities they imagined to dwell in the body of those stars better saw them, or were better pleased thus, or because these places were nearer heaven. On the flat roofs of their houses they were used to have their altars and worship. That swear by the Lord, or, to the Lord, (as the Hebrew bears,) and by Malcham; persons that mix idol worship and the worship of the true God; that devote themselves to God and Baal, or Malcham; called Milcom, and Molech, and Moloch, ; probably it was their chief idol, fancied to be king of gods and men.

Zephaniah 1:5 And them that worship the host of heaven upon the housetops; and them that worship [and] that swear by the LORD, and that swear by Malcham;Ver. 5. And them that worship the host of heaven upon the housetops] Called elsewhere the Queen of heaven, the constellations and heavenly bodies: whom they thought to worship so much the more acceptably, if in an open place and on high, in the very sight of the stars. Observent ista qui hodie Astrologiam iudiciariam profitentur, saith Gualther, Let those among us observe this who profess judiciary astrology; for these worship the stars no less than did the heathens of old, and do openly bring in heathenism again; while (first) they call the stars by the names of those heathenish deities, that ought to be abolished; and next, they subject to those stars all events of things, yea, man himself as touching all his manners and fortunes, which the Scripture affirmeth to depend upon the eternal providence of God alone. This is intolerable impiety, and they that fall into it, shall not escape the just judgment of God. And them that worship and that swear by the Lord (or to the Lord, consecrating themselves as by oath to his service), and that swear by Malcham] That is, by their king, as the Egyptians did of old, Genesis 42:15. The Spaniards at this day, in the pride of their monarchy, are grown also to swear by the life of their king. There are a sort of mongrel Christians in the East called Melchites, as one would say of the king’ s religion, because they resolved to do as Melech the king commanded them, though it were to make a mixture of religions, as these in the text would, and as our late moderators, Sancta Clara and others, of whom one said well, that they had made a pretty show, had there been no Bible, to tell us, that the jealous and just God hateth and plagueth halting between two, lukewarmness and neutrality in religion, all dough baked duties, speckled birds, ploughing with an ox and an ass, mingled seeds, linseywoolsey garments, Leviticus 19:19. Upon which text the Douay doctor’ s note is, here all participation with heretics and schismatics is forbidden. But by Malcham most understand here an idol of the Ammonites, otherwise called Molech, served in Tophet near to Jerusalem, and in the mount of Olives, called therefore the mount of corruption, 2 Kings 23:13. Which God could not but see as often as he looked out of the sanctuary. These worshippers of Malcham would not utterly renounce the true God, but they would set up others with him as partners: this would not be endured. Such were of old the Samaritans among the Jews, the Ebionites among the Christians, the Papists to this day, who swear by God and saints, and pray to God and his saints, and commit themselves to them (together with God) as their tutelars and patrons.

(5) The worship “on the housetops” is mentioned elsewhere as the cult of a certain class of apostates (see Jeremiah 19:13; Jeremiah 32:29) who ascended roots and other high places to adore the hosts of heaven. We find it mentioned as part of Josiah’s reformatory procedure that he removed “the altars that were on the top of the upper chamber of Ahaz” (2 Kings 23:12). The last half of the verse should be rendered, And the worshippers who swear to Jehovah, and who swear (also) by Malcham—i.e., those who divide their allegiance between the true God and the false. In the title given to the latter we may perhaps see a combination of “their king” (Hebrew, malcâm) and the name Moloch, or Molech. The name Malcham, however, occurs elsewhere as the name of an Ammonite deity, probably identical with Moloch. (See Jeremiah 49:1-3, Notes.) In 1 Kings 11:5, moreover, we have a deity “Milcham,” who is identified two verses later with Molech, “the abomination of the children of Ammon.” The allusion to the adoration of the “host of heaven upon the housetops” gains additional force if this deity is identical with the planet Saturn, as some have supposed. (See Gesenius, sub voce).

Verse 5. The host of heaven] Sun, moon, planets, and stars. This worship was one of the most ancient and the most common of all species of idolatry; and it had a greater semblance of reason to recommend it. See 2Kg 23:5; 2Kg 23:12; Jeremiah 19:13; Jeremiah 32:29. That swear by the Lord, and that swear by Malcham] Associating the name of an idol with that of the Most High. For Malcham, see on Hosea 4:15, and Amos 5:26.

5. Besides the priests who lead the false worship, the various classes of worshippers shall be swept away: (1) those that worship the host of heaven on the house-tops; (2) those who unite Jehovah and other gods in their worship; and (3) those who have renounced the service of Jehovah, or who do not concern themselves about Him (Zephaniah 1:6)—those wholly indifferent, “settled on their lees” (Zephaniah 1:12). the host of heaven] The “host of heaven” appears to be an expression including the heavenly bodies in general, sun, moon and stars. Of course only particular stars, such as the more brilliant fixed stars and the planets, with the constellations of the zodiac (2 Kings 23:5), would be worshipped, not the starry heavens in a mass. The sun and moon are frequently specified separately from the “host of heaven,” because more conspicuous, though they are no doubt to be included in the general expression, “host of heaven.” The fact that the worship of the heavenly bodies was performed on the housetops indicates that the service was rendered directly to them when visible and not indirectly to representations of them. Job 31:26 describes one way of performing the worship: “If I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking in brightness, and my heart hath been secretly enticed, and my mouth hath kissed my hand”; cf. Ezekiel 8:16, “Behold, about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the Lord, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east.” Worship of the host of heaven is not alluded to by the prophets of northern Israel, unless it be in the obscure passage Amos 5:26. Its prevalence in Judah in later times was due to the influence of Assyria. It was natural that the vassal state should imitate the manners and religion of its superior. The practice appears to have been introduced by Ahaz (2 Kings 23:12), and is frequently alluded to by Jeremiah and writers after his time (Jeremiah 19:13). that swear by the Lord] lit. that swear to the Lord. To swear to the Lord is to acknowledge and do homage to Jehovah as God; to swear by the Lord is to bind oneself by His name in taking an oath. Cf. Isaiah 45:23, “unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.” And that swear by Malcham] The word Malcham as pointed means their King, that is, probably Molech. Others would point Milcom, the name of the god of the children of Ammon (1 Kings 11:5; 1 Kings 11:33; 2 Kings 23:13), who however is called Molech in 1 Kings 11:7. Though Solomon to gratify his strange wives built highplaces to Milcom and other gods, worship of the Ammonitish Milcom in Israel is nowhere else alluded to and has little probability. The spelling Malcham, “their King,” is therefore preferable, though it is possible that Malcham is merely another pronunciation of Milcom, meaning Molech.

And them that worship the best of heaven upon the - (flat) housetops This was fulfilled by Josiah who destroyed “the altars that were on the top of the upper chamber of Ahaz” 2 Kings 23:12.

Zephaniah 1:5-6 name different classes of worshipers that will be swept away. Worship the host of heaven — The sun, moon, and stars.