Zephaniah, Baal Worship

Zephaniah 1:4 “I will stretch out My hand against Judah, and against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. I will cut off every trace of Baal from this place. The names of the idolatrous priests with the pagan priests–

God focuses upon Judah and the city of Jerusalem, or rather the people who dwell in it. Judah was the remaining, dominant tribe after northern Israel or Samaria was taken in captivity by Assyria (around 720 BC). And as Samaria was the capital city of northern Israel, becoming synonymous with it, so was Jerusalem to Judah. Jerusalem held the temple built by Solomon, and the king’s palace. It was a holy place to the Jews, who had dwelt there after expelling the Jebusites from it during the time of King David.

God stretches His hand out against the people for one express purpose defined in this verse. He intends to expunge Baal worship from Judah. In verse 3 He already alluded to this by referring to the stumbling blocks (a figure of speech for idols) and the wicked who utilized them. Now He makes mention of a particular false god in Baal, who had hounded Israel for centuries. Baal is a Canaanite god of storms, the harvest and fertility. It was said of his worshipers that the dry season was when Baal died and passed through the underworld, reviving with spring and bringing abundant life with him. There is a familiar corollary here, reminiscent of the Egyptian god Ra, who traversed the underworld nightly to rise again and bring the light of day.

Baal was worshiped by Balak of Moab and his people, and Israel sinned against God by joining themselves to Baal worship at Baal-Peor, Numbers 25:3. Baal’s wife was a revolting goddess named Ashera, whose idols tended to be sexual in nature. Baal himself apparently could also be worshiped by ritual intercourse, as seen in Numbers 25:6-8, when Zimri and Cozbi were slain by Phinehas for their indiscretion, Numbers 25:14, 15. Cozbi was a chief’s daughter in Midian, seeming to demonstrate that this was religious proselytization.

Baal worship would become deeply entrenched in Jewish thinking by Elijah’s time. King Ahab had married Jezebel, daughter of Ethbaal, king of Sidon. Ahab converted to Baal worship after their marriage, 1 Kings 16:31. He built a temple for Baal in Samaria, and Jezebel took this opportunity to attempt to excise the worship of Yahweh from Israel, 1 Kings 18:4. This culminated in a showdown between 450 priests that served Baal, and the single prophet that spoke as God compelled him. Samaria suffered drought, which was religiously important since Baal was supposedly the storm god, and could have relieved northern Israel of its affliction, but Yahweh demonstrated the impotence of their chosen god by withholding rain from the heavens. This is similar to the judgments on Egypt, which often reflected an Egyptian god’s supposed role. Only after He had struck a decisive victory over the priests did God permit rain to come upon Israel, once the Jews knew who it was that truly created and controlled nature and brought the rain, 1 Kings 18:45.

The idolatrous priests are those who are Jewish and belong to Yahweh, but converted to Baal worship. The pagan priests are those who do not belong to the tribes of Israel and continue to facilitate the spiritual infection that was killing them. A pagan is someone whose religious beliefs are outside of what is accepted as the norm within a particular region or culture. So the Canaanites that remained after Israel’s conquest were the leaven in the dough that leavened it all through, resulting in the Israel of Zephaniah’s time (circa 630 BC) being thoroughly compromised. This is seen when King Josiah had the Torah read to him and is devastated by what he hears, verses the daily reality of religious conformity in contemporary Judah. While external reforms were made, it was clear that they were just that since the people reverted to form immediately after Josiah’s death and the subsequent successions of puppet kings that followed.

God will expunge from Israel Baal and idol worship in general, along with the names of those–be they Hebrew or Gentile–who indulge in them rather than recognizing the true God as alone being worthy of human worship.