Charles Ellicott 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)

The king’s children. —The misfortunes that were to befall Josiah’s children, Jehoahaz and Jehoiakim (see 2 Kings 23:24), are perhaps what the prophet had in mind. But if we are correct in our view of the date of writing (see Introduction II), these princes must have still been mere children and could hardly have provoked the prophet’s curse by any extraordinary display of wickedness. Therefore, it seems better to suppose that the king’s brothers or uncles are meant. (Compare 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: for example, 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 ribbon at the fringe, was appointed so that the Jews might “look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the Lord, and do them” (Numbers 15:38–39).