2 Kings 23:5

5 Then he did away with the idolatrous priests the kings of Judah had appointed to burn incense at the high places in the cities of Judah and in the areas surrounding Jerusalem. They had burned incense to Baal, and to the sun, moon, constellations, and the whole heavenly host.

2 Kings 23:5 Meaning and Commentary

2 Kings 23:5

And he put down the idolatrous priests
The Cemarim, so called, because they wore black clothes, as Kimchi and others, whereas the priests of the Lord were clothed in white linen, (See Gill on Zephaniah 1:4).

whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high
places, in the cities of Judah, and in the places round about
Jerusalem;
for though those high places were destroyed by Hezekiah, they were rebuilt by Manasseh his son, and priests put in them to officiate there, whom Josiah now deposed, ( 2 Kings 21:3 ) ,

them also that burnt incense unto Baal;
in the same high places; these were the priests, and the others in the preceding clause are thought to be ministers unto them:

to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets;
the five planets besides the sun and moon, as Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, and Venus; or to the twelve celestial signs in the firmament, as some F20; though Theodoret takes it to be a single star, the evening star:

and to all the host of heaven;
or even to the host of heaven, all the stars thereof: this part of worship,

burning incense,
which was peculiar to the most high God, yet was frequently made by idolaters to their deities; and from the word F21 by which it is here and elsewhere expressed may "nectar" be derived, so much spoken of by the Heathen poets as of a sweet smell F23, and as delicious to their gods; and so Porphyry F24 represents the gods as living on smoke, vapours, and perfumes; and frankincense is said, by Diodorus Siculus F25, to be most grateful to them, and beloved by them; this therefore is a much better derivation of the word "nectar" than what Suidas F26 gives, that is, as if it was "nectar", because it makes those young that drink it; or than the account Athenaeus F1 gives of it, that it is a wine in Babylon so called.


FOOTNOTES:

F20 David de Pomis Lexic. fol. 77. 3.
F21 (rjq) "suffitum fecit. Et diis acceptus--" Nidor. Ovid. Metamorph. 1. 12, fab. 4.
F23 Theocrit. Idyll. xvii. ver. 29.
F24 De Abstinentia, l. 2. c. 42. Celsus apud Origen. l. 8. p. 417.
F25 Biblioth. l. 2. p. 132.
F26 In voce (nektareou) .
F1 Deipnosophist. l. 1.

2 Kings 23:5 In-Context

3 Next, the king stood by the pillar and made a covenant in the presence of the Lord to follow the Lord and to keep His commandments, His decrees, and His statutes with all his mind and with all his heart, and to carry out the words of this covenant that were written in this book; all the people agreed to the covenant.
4 Then the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest and the priests of the second rank and the doorkeepers to bring out of the Lord's temple all the articles made for Baal, Asherah, and the whole heavenly host. He burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron and carried their ashes to Bethel
5 Then he did away with the idolatrous priests the kings of Judah had appointed to burn incense at the high places in the cities of Judah and in the areas surrounding Jerusalem. They had burned incense to Baal, and to the sun, moon, constellations, and the whole heavenly host.
6 He brought out the Asherah pole from the Lord's temple to the Kidron Valley outside Jerusalem. He burned it at the Kidron Valley, beat it to dust, and threw its dust on the graves of the common people.
7 He also tore down the houses of the male shrine prostitutes that were in the Lord's temple, in which the women were weaving tapestries for Asherah.
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