Zephaniah 1:8

1:7-13 God's day is at hand; the punishment of presumptuous sinners is a sacrifice to the justice of God. The Jewish royal family shall be reckoned with for their pride and vanity; and those that leap on the threshold, invading their neighbours' rights, and seizing their possessions. The trading people and the rich merchants are called to account. Secure and careless people are reckoned with. They are secure and easy; they say in their heart, the Lord will not do good, neither will he do evil; that is, they deny his dispensing rewards and punishments. But in the day of the Lord's judgment, it will clearly appear that those who perish, fall a sacrifice to Divine justice for breaking God's law, and because they have no interest by faith in the Redeemer's atoning sacrifice.

When the above sacrifice prepared shall be offered, and the slaughter of his people made, when his wrath shall be poured out upon them, within the time of its beginning and ending: that I will punish the princes, and the king's children; either the children of Josiah, who, though a good prince, his children did evil in the sight of the Lord, and were punished by him: Jehoahaz, after a three months' reign was carried down to Egypt, and died there; Jehoiakim, his elder brother, that succeeded him, rebelling against the king of Babylon, in the fourth year of his reign, fell into his hands, and died, and was buried with the burial of an ass; and Jeconiah his son was carried captive into Babylon, and there remained to the day of his death; and with him were carried the whole royal family, and all the princes, and all the mighty men of valour, 2 Kings 24:14 or else the children of Zedekiah, another son of Josiah, and the last of the kings of Judah, who was carried captive by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, who before his eyes slew his sons, and all the princes of Judah, and then put out his eyes, and bound him in chains, Jeremiah 52:10 and thus this prophecy had its accomplishment: and all such as are clothed with strange apparel; either which they put on in honour of the idols they worshipped, as Jarchi; so the heathens wore one sort of garments for one idol, and another sort for another; or these were men of a pharisaical cast, who wore garments different from others, that they m

Zephaniah 1:8-9 . In that day I will punish the princes and the king’s children — In 2 Kings 25:7 ; 2 Kings 25:21 , we read of the fulfilling of both these particulars; the sons of King Zedekiah, and the principal officers of the state, being slain by the order of the king of Babylon. And all such as are clothed with strange apparel — Used for idolatrous purposes: see Deuteronomy 22:11 . There were peculiar vestments belonging to the worship of each idol; hence the command of Jehu, 2 Kings 10:22 , Bring forth vestments for all the worshippers of Baal. The text may likewise be explained of such men as wore women’s apparel, and such women as wore that of men, which was contrary to an express law, Deuteronomy 22:5 , and was a rite observed in the worship of some idols. In the same day will I punish all those that leap on the threshold — Or rather, over the threshold. The expression is thought to denote some idolatrous rite, like that which was practised in the temple of Dagon, where the priests did not tread upon the threshold, 1 Samuel 5:5 . Thus the Chaldee paraphrast interprets it of those who walked after the laws or rites of the Philistines. Capellus, however, understands it of those who invaded the house of their neighbours, joyfully bounding on the threshold. “This sense is favoured by what follows.” — Newcome.

Which fill their masters’ houses with violence and deceit — Who enter into other men’s houses, and take away their goods by fraud or violence, and carry them to the houses of their masters. The iniquitous officers of the kings and princes seem to be here intended, who employed all the arts of deceit and oppression, as well as of open violence, to fill their master’s coffers.

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 {d} strange apparel. (d) Meaning, the courtiers, who did imitate the strange apparel of other nations to win their favour by it, and to appear glorious in the eyes of all others; read Eze 23:14-15.

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, 2 Kings 25:19-21 . The king’s children; sons and grandchildren too of good Josiah. Jehoahaz died a captive in Egypt, 2 Kings 23:34 . Jehoiakim died on the way, or in Babylon, buried with the burial of an ass, Jeremiah 22:18,19 . 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.

8. the princes—who ought to have been an example of good to others, but were ringleaders in all evil. the king's children—fulfilled on Zedekiah's children (Jer 39:6); and previously, on Jehoahaz and Eliakim, the sons of Josiah (2Ki 23:31, 36; 2Ch 36:6; compare also 2Ki 20:18; 21:13). Huldah the prophetess (2Ki 22:20) intimated that which Zephaniah now more expressly foretells. all such as are clothed with strange apparel—the princes or courtiers who attired themselves in costly garments, imported from abroad; partly for the sake of luxury, and partly to ingratiate themselves with foreign great nations whose costume as well as their idolatries they imitated, [Calvin]; whereas in costume, as in other respects, God would have them to be separate from the nations. Grotius refers the "strange apparel" to garments forbidden by the law, for example, men's garments worn by women, and vice versa, a heathen usage in the worship of Mars and Venus (De 22:5).

Verse 8. The prophet names the three classes of people who shall be smitten in this judgment. First, the princes. In the day of the Lord's sacrifice (see note on ver. 7). God is speaking; so the name of the Lord is employed instead of the pronoun (comp. Lamentations 3:66 ). I will punish; literally, visit upon (ver. 12; Amos 3:14 ). The princes. The heads of tribes and families, nobles and magistrates. The king's children ( sons ); Septuagint, τὸν οϊκον τοῦ βασιλέως , "the house of the king." The royal family, not specially the sons of Josiah, who, if they were then in existence, must have been mere children, but princes of the royal house. The reference may be particularly to the sons of the king reigning when the judgment fell (see 2 Kings 25:7 ). The king himself is not mentioned as subject to the judgment, inasmuch as he was pious and obedient ( 2 Chronicles 34:27 , etc.). In the mention of these "children" Keil finds proof of the late origin of the prophecy. Such as are clothed with strange apparel. This clause must represent the sin for which the princes are "visited." "Strange" apparel means "foreign" apparel, and this implied foreign manners and habits. The Israelites were reminded by their very dress that they were a peculiar people, consecrated to God's service ( Numbers 15:37 , etc.; Deuteronomy 22:12 ).

8 . I will punish the princes ] lit. visit upon the princes. The princes are the nobles, particularly those entrusted with judicial and similar offices. the king’s children ] The children of the king are the royal house in general, hardly Josiah’s own sons, who in the eighteenth year of his reign were aged ten and twelve ( 2 Kings 23:31 ; 2 Kings 23:36 ). For “children” Sept. reads house of the king, a reading which at least suggests the right meaning. The words “children” and “house” are occasionally confused. Sept. reads “house” where Heb. has “children” in Jeremiah 16:15 ; Ezekiel 2:3 ; 1 Chronicles 2:10 , and on the other hand it reads “children” where Heb. has “house” in Genesis 45:11 ; Exodus 16:31 ; Joshua 17:17 ; Joshua 18:5 ; Hosea 1:7 . clothed with strange apparel ] i.e. foreign apparel. It would be the royal family, “behold, they that wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses” ( Matthew 11:8 ), and the nobility who were given to this practice. 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 .