Zephaniah 1:8

And it shall come to pass in the day of the Lord's sacrifice,.... When the above sacrifice prepared shall be offered, and the slaughter of his people made, when his wrath shall be poured out upon

And it shall come to pass in the day of the LORD's sacrifice, that I will punish the princes, and the king's children, and all such as are clothed with strange apparel.

It shall come to pass; it shall most certainly be fulfilled what I threaten I will most surely execute. In the day of the Lord’ s sacrifice; of slaughter to be made by the Babylonians, called here a day of sacrifice, that we might see clearly the just and exemplary proceedings of God; these people sinned in sacrificing to strange gods, and God will punish them, making them a strange sacrifice to his anger. I will punish; the punishment shall appear to be from my hand, as he threatens often by Ezekiel. The princes; nobles about the court, the great ones, who dreamed of shifting better than others, but fell with the first, . The king’ s children; sons and grandchildren too of good Josiah. Jehoahaz died a captive in Egypt, . Jehoiakim died on the way, or in Babylon, buried with the burial of an ass, ,19. Jeconiah, carried to Babylon, sped somewhat, yet but little, better; there he died a captive. As for Zedekiah and his children, these were slain before his face, then his eyes put out, and he led into miserable captivity. Clothed with strange apparel; some say the strange apparel of idolatrous priests; others say, and more likely, the garb of foreigners, imitated by the wanton Jews.

Zephaniah 1:8 And it shall come to pass in the day of the LORD’ S sacrifice, that I will punish the princes, and the king’ s children, and all such as are clothed with strange apparel. Ver. 8. And it shall come to pass in the day of the Lord’ s sacrifice] Or, good cheer; for at their sacrifices they used to feast their friends; and here the Lord is providing dainties for his guests; viz. the flesh of princes, gallants, courtiers, Zephaniah 1:9, merchants, Zephaniah 1:11, who use to eat the fat and drink the sweet, "nourishing their hearts as in a day of slaughter," James 5:5; and now also for a day of slaughter, when the beasts shall tear their flesh and the birds bare their bones. That I will punish the princes and the king’ s children] Who might seem to be safest of any, and farthest off from danger; but God’ s hand can easily reach them, and shall do with the first, because their faults fly fast abroad upon those two wings of example and scandal. See this threatening fulfilled in Josiah’ s sons, those degenerate plants, Heroum filii noxae. Jehoahaz ambitiously stepped into his father’ s throne before his elder brother, and was soon after carried down to Egypt, and there slain. Jehoiakim, the elder brother, succeeded him; but rebelling against the King of Babylon, he was carried captive, and dying by the way, was buried with the burial of an ass, being cast out, to be torn by birds and beasts, according to this prophecy, Jeremiah 22:19. Jechoniah came after, and was likewise carried into captivity: but because he hearkened to Jeremiah, persuading him to yield, and to go into voluntary banishment, he had some good days toward his latter end, Jeremiah 52:31-32. Lastly Zedekiah, another son of Josiah, was made king; who as he was worse than the former, so he sped worse. See Jeremiah 39:6-7. Potentes potenter torquebantur. The powerful are twisted powerfully. And all such as are clothed with strange apparel] Those gallants, that imitated in their raiment those whom they most inclined to; some the Egyptians, others the Babylonians. A vanity not known in England, they say, till the wars in Holland. And (as ex malls moribus bonae leges) then first were great ruffs, with huge wide sets, and cloaks reaching almost to the ankles, no less uncomely than costly, restrained by proclamation (Camd. Eliz. 215). Now, what so common with our fashion mongers (against whom this is a stinging and a flaming text) than to be clothed with strange apparel, a la mode de France especially, and other Popish countries? But what saith one, borrow not (fashions) of the Egyptians; if you do you may get their boils and botches; of the Polonians, lest you get the plica Polonica in your hairy scalps; of the French, lest the lues Gallica befall you. Oh what enemy of thine hath taught thee so much vanity?

(8) The king’s children.—The misfortunes which were to befall Josiah’s children, Jehoahaz and Jehoiakim (see 2 Kings 23, 24), are perhaps in the prophet’s eye. But if we are correct in our view of the date of writing (see Introd. II.) these princes must have been as yet mere children, and could hardly have provoked the prophet’s curse by any extraordinary display of wickedness. It therefore appears better to suppose that the king’s brothers or uncles are meant. (Comp. the phrase in 2 Kings 11:2; 2 Chronicles 22:11.) Clothed with strange apparel.—Zephaniah means those who have imitated the luxurious dress of foreign nations: e.g., perhaps the gorgeous apparel of Assyria and Babylonia (Ezekiel 23:12-15). This desire for strange clothing is specially noticed as a mark of apostasy, because the national dress, with its blue riband at the fringe, was appointed that the Jews might “look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the Lord, and do them” (Numbers 15:38-39).

Verse 8. I will punish the princes, and the king's children] After the death of Josiah the kingdom of Judah saw no prosperity, and every reign terminated miserably; until at last King Zedekiah and the king's children were cruelly massacred at Riblah, when Nebuchadnezzar had taken Jerusalem. Strange apparel] I really think this refers more to their embracing idolatrous customs and heathen usages, than to their changing their dress. They acquired new habits, as we would say; customs, that they used as they did their clothing-at all times, and in every thing.

8–13. The classes in Jerusalem on which the judgment will fall The errors and sins assailed by Zephaniah are the same as those attacked by earlier prophets, e.g. (1) the false worship, Zephaniah 1:4-6, cf. Amos 4:4 ff.; Isaiah 1:11 ff.; (2) the civil wrong and injustice, Zephaniah 1:9, cf. Amos 5:7; Amos 5:10-13; Isaiah 3:12-15; Isaiah 5:8; Isaiah 5:23; (3) dissatisfaction with the idea of the theocratic state and its place among the nations, and consequent assumption of foreign manners, Zephaniah 1:8, cf. Isaiah 2:6; Isaiah 8:6 (they reject the waters of Shiloah that go softly), though possibly the luxury of foreign apparel may also be stigmatised (Amos 6:3-7); and (4) religious indifference and insensibility to the operations of Jehovah, Zephaniah 1:12, cf. Amos 6:1; Amos 6:13-14; Isaiah 5:11-12; Isaiah 6:9-10; Isaiah 29:9-12, the result of which was an absorbing devotion to secular business, Zephaniah 1:11, cf. Amos 8:5.

I will punish - (Literally, visit upon). God seems oftentimes to be away from His own world.

8, 9. In agreement with the other pre-exilic prophets Zephaniah names the nobles and princes as special objects of the divine wrath, because they have sinned most persistently against the divine will. Princes — See on Hosea 3:4.