And the Priests thereof that rejoyced on it

And the Priests thereof that rejoyced on it.

The Priests they especially mourn. The word that is here translated Priests, it is in the Hebrew Chemarims, and I find it signifies three things the word from where it comes.

Chemar signifies to sound out, and so some think that it is they are called Chemarims, because of their clamorous sounds that they were wont to have in their superstitious worship: just as we were wont to have Bellowing in their Cathedrals, so they were wont to have, and therefore they were called Chemarims, because of their mighty noises and sounds that they were wont to have.

Secondly, it signifies, to burn, or to be hot. And so Luther (I find) takes the word, and says, That they were called Chemarims from their burning desires after their ways of false worship.

But I rather think there is a third, that signifies to be Black from burning; because those things that are burnt, they are made black. When the flame first takes hold upon a thing it makes it black: and so Chemarims are as much as black ones, or indeed Black Coats; they were wont to be known by their black garments, and therefore they are called by the name Chemarims, because of their black garments that they were wont to use: and I find in 2 Kings 23:5 that this word that is here Priests, is there Idolatrous Priests, it's the same word. Those Black-Coats that were then, they accounted it a kind of religion to go in Black, from there they would have the name. And though certainly it's fit for the Ministers of the Gospel to go gravely, and decently, and not to express lightness and vanity in their garments, yet to put a kind of superstition upon black, as upon necessity they must wear black Coats, and no other garments will serve the turn: as heretofore there was a kind of superstitious vanity put on it. Now though gravity be required in their very garments, yet to stand so much upon the very color there may be danger in it, and those that are looked upon as religious men that should differ any way from others, that they should be tied and bound to it, I say, this there is an evil in it — they were wont to do so here: and so almost all your Heathens and superstitious people they had always a special color for the garments of their Priests; as the Turks have their green for the color of the garments of their Priests. But thus much only for the name Chemarims.