CHAMARIM. We meet with this word in several places of the Hebrew Bible, and generally it is translated, the Priests of the Idols, or Priests cloathed in black, because Chamar signifies black or blackness. S. Jerom in the second Book of Kings1 renders 2 Kings xxiii. 5. Hos. x. 5. וכמריו Zeph. i. 4.it Aruspices. In Hosea and Zephaniah he translates it Æditui, Churchwardens; but the best Commentators are of opinion, that by this word we are to understand the Priests of the false Gods, and in particular of the Worshippers of Fire2, because they were, as they say, dressed in black; or perhaps the Hebrews gave them this name in derision, because as they were continually employed in taking care about the fewel and keeping up the Fire, they were as black as Smiths or Colliers. We find Priests among those of Isis called Melanephori, that is to say, that wear black. But I cannot tell whether this might be by reason of their dressing in black, or whether it were because they wore a certain black shining Vail in the Processions of this Goddess.3 Quæ longe lateque meum confutabat obtutum pallanigerrima, splendescens atro nitore. Camar in Arabic signifies the Moon: Isis is the same Deity. Grotius thinks the Roman Priests called Camilli, came from the Hebrew, Chamarim. They among the Heathens who sacrificed to the infernal Gods, were dressed in black4.
Vidi egomet nigrâ succinctam vadere pallâ Canidiam pedibus nudis, passoque capillo.
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