It is common for Old Testament scholars to claim כֹּמֶר *KMR that only refers to foreign priests/priests of idolatrous gods. As one example, take the entry for כֹּמֶר in David J. A. Clines (who, by the way, I consider to be an excellent scholar), The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, 8 vols. (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1998) 4:429:
However,
there is much against this simplistic understanding. Commenting on 2 Kgs 23:5,
J. Glen Taylor in is Yahweh and the Sun wrote:
5 And he [Josiah] retired the idolatrous priests (kemārîm)
whom the kings of Judah had dedicated to burn incense at the high places in the
town of Judah and the environs of Jerusalem, those who burned incense to Baal,
to the sun, and to the moon and to all the Hosts of Heaven.
Scholars are divided about whether the priests
referred to here are Yahwistic as the Judaean setting suggests or ‘idolatrous’
as the force of the word kemārîm, ‘idolatrous priests’
suggests. (J. Glen Taylor, Yahweh and the Sun: Biblical and Archaeological
Evidence for Sun Worship in Ancient Israel [Journal for the Study of the
Old Testament Supplement Series 111; Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1993], 174)
In
the footnote to the above, Taylor noted that:
Illustrative aspects of the debate are as follows.
Many scholars regard it as doubtful that kemārîm is likely a
reference to Yahwistic priests. On the basis of his own examination of the
meaning of Akkadian kumru kimritu. Spieckermann (Juda unter Assur,
pp. 85-86) argues that the word was a designation for priests collaborating with
the Assyrians. In response, however, Würthwein (Bücher der Könige, p.
456) wonders if these priests, according to Spieckermann, based in Jerusalem
(?), would have been present in Jerusalem even during a period of Assyrian
decline. In responding further to Spieckerman, Würthwein also wonders if it is likely
that these priests could have been installed by the kings of Judah and
appointed to the high places, a point which which may be raised in response to
those who regard the kemārîm as ‘foreign priests’. (Ibid., 174
n. 3)
For further evidence against the view of Clines et al., see:
The Use of כמר KMR at Elephantine and the Etymology of "Cumorah"
