Albert Barnes Commentary Zephaniah 1:8

"And it shall come to pass in the day of Jehovah`s sacrifice, that I will punish the princes, and the king`s sons, and all such as are clothed with foreign apparel." — Zephaniah 1:8 (ASV)

I will punish — (Literally, visit upon). God often seems to be away from His own world. People plot, design, say, in word or in deed, “Who is Lord over us?” God is, so to speak, a stranger in it, or like a man who has “taken a journey into a far country.” God uses our own language to us. “I will visit,” inspecting (so to speak), examining, sifting, reviewing, and when people’s sins require it, allowing the weight of His displeasure to fall upon them.

The princes — The prophet again, in vivid detail (as is his characteristic), sets forth together sin and punishment. Amid the general chastisement of all, when all were to become one sacrifice, those who sinned most would be punished most. The evil priests had received their doom. Here he begins anew with the mighty of the people and so goes down, first to special spots of the city, then to the whole, man by man. Josiah being a godly king, no mention is made of him. Thirteen years before his death, he received the promise of God: because your heart was tender, and you have humbled yourself before the Lord... I will gather you to your fathers, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace, and you shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place (2 Kings 22:19–20).

In remarkable contrast to Jeremiah, who had to be, in detail and continual pleading with his people, a prophet of judgment to come, until these judgments broke upon them, and so was the reprover of the evil sovereigns who succeeded Josiah, Zephaniah has to pronounce God’s judgments only on the “princes” and “the king’s children.”

Jeremiah, in his inaugural vision, was forewarned that the kings Judah, its princes, priests, and the people of the land (Jeremiah 1:18) would war against him, because he was to speak to them all that God would command him. And from then on, Jeremiah accuses or threatens kings and the princes together (Jeremiah 2:26; Jeremiah 4:9; Jeremiah 8:1; Jeremiah 24:8; Jeremiah 32:32; Jeremiah 34:21). Zephaniah, on the contrary, his office lying wholly within the reign of Josiah, describes the princes again as roaring lions (Zephaniah 3:3), but says nothing of the king, as neither does Micah (Micah 3:1, Micah 3:9), in the reign, perhaps, of Jotham or Hezekiah. Isaiah speaks of princes as rebellious and companions of thieves (Isaiah 1:23). Jeremiah speaks of them as idolaters (Jeremiah 44:17, Jeremiah 44:21).

They appear to have had considerable influence, which on one occasion they employed in defense of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 26:16), but mostly for evil (Jeremiah 37:15; Jeremiah 38:4, Jeremiah 38:16). Zedekiah inquired of Jeremiah secretly for fear of them (Jeremiah 37:17; Jeremiah 38:14–27). They brought destruction upon themselves by what people praise—their resistance to Nebuchadnezzar—but it was against the declared mind of God. Nebuchadnezzar unwittingly fulfilled the prophets’ word when he slew all the nobles of Judah, the eunuch who was over the war, and seven men of them that were near the king’s person, and the principal scribe of the host (Jeremiah 39:6; Jeremiah 52:25–27).

And the king’s children — Holy Scripture mentions chief persons only by name. Isaiah had prophesied the isolated, lonely, loveless fate of Hezekiah's descendants who would be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon (Isaiah 39:7), associated only with those intriguing pests of Eastern courts—a fate in itself worse than the sword (although for Daniel, God overruled it for good)—and Zedekiah’s sons were slain before his eyes and his lineage became extinct. Jehoiakim died a disgraced death, and Jehoiachin was imprisoned for more than half a man's life.

And all such as are clothed with strange apparel — Israel was reminded by its dress that it belonged to God. It was no great thing in itself: a band of dark blue (Numbers 15:38; Deuteronomy 22:12) upon the fringes at the four corners of their garments. But the band of dark blue was upon the high priest’s mitre, with the plate engraved, Holiness to the Lord (Exodus 28:36), fastened upon it; with a band of dark blue also was the breastplate (Exodus 39:21) bound to the ephod of the high priest.

So then, simple as it was, it seems to have designated the whole nation as a kingdom of priests, an holy nation (Exodus 19:6). It was appointed to them, that you may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the Lord and do them, and that you seek not after your own heart and your own eyes, after which you use to go a whoring; that you may remember and do all My commandments, and be holy to your God (Numbers 15:39–40).

They might say, “It is but ‘a band of blue,’” but the ‘band of blue’ was the soldier’s badge, which marked them as devoted to the service of their God. Indifference to or shame of it involved indifference to or shame of the charge given to them with it, and to their calling as a peculiar people. The choice of the strange apparel involved the choice to be like the nations of the world: we will be as the pagan, as the families of the countries (Ezekiel 20:32).

All luxurious times copy foreign dress, and with it, foreign manners and luxuries, which is why even the pagan Romans were zealous against its use. It is very probable that with the foreign dress, foreign idolatry was imported. The Babylonian dress was very gorgeous, such as was the admiration of the simpler Jews: Her captains and rulers clothed in perfection, girded with girdles upon their loins, with flowing dyed attire upon their heads (Ezekiel 23:12, Ezekiel 23:15). Ezekiel had to frame words to express the Hebrew idea of their beauty. Jehoiakim is reproved among other things for his luxury (Jeremiah 22:14–15). Outward dress always signifies the inward mind, and in its turn acts upon it. An estranged dress signified an estranged heart, which is why it is used as an image of the whole spiritual mind (Romans 13:14; Colossians 3:12; Ephesians 4:24).

Jerome: “The garment of the sons of the king and the apparel of princes which we receive in Baptism is Christ, according to that, Put you on the Lord Jesus Christ, and Put you on bowels of mercy, goodness, humility, patience, and the rest. In this, we are commanded to be clothed with the new man from heaven according to our Creator, and to lay aside the clothing of the old man with his deeds (Ephesians 4:22).

Whereas, then we ought to be clothed in such raiment, instead of mercy we put on cruelty; instead of patience, impatience; instead of righteousness, iniquity; in a word, instead of virtues, vices; instead of Christ, antichrist. This is why it is said of such a one, He is clothed with cursing as with a garment (Psalms 109:18). These the Lord will visit most manifestly at His coming.” Rup.: “Do you think that hypocrisy is ‘strange apparel?’ Truly. For what stranger apparel than sheep's clothing for ravening wolves? What stranger than for him who within is full of iniquity, to appear outwardly righteous before men? (Matthew 23:28).”