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 "Zep 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, 2Ki 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 ; 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 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 , and as delicious to their gods; and so Porphyry represents the gods as living on smoke, vapours, and perfumes; and frankincense is said, by Diodorus Siculus , to be most grateful to them, and beloved by them; this therefore is a much better derivation of the word "nectar" than what Suidas gives, that is, as if it was "nectar", because it makes those young that drink it; or than the account Athenaeus gives of it, that it is a wine in Babylon so called.
David de Pomis Lexic. fol. 77. 3. rjq "suffitum fecit. Et diis acceptus--" Nidor. Ovid. Metamorph. 1. 12, fab. 4. Theocrit. Idyll. xvii. ver. 29. De Abstinentia, l. 2. c. 42. Celsus apud Origen. l. 8.
p. 417. Biblioth. l. 2. p. 132. In voce nektareou. Deipnosophist. l.