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? said Mr John Fox to his son, returning from his travels, and attired in a loose outlandish fashion. (Hist. of Modern Divin.) Those that affected the Babylonian habit were sent captives to Babylon, Ezekiel 23:15, and those proud dames (whose wardrobe is inventoried, Isa 3:16-24) were a cause that the mighty men fell in battle, Isaiah 3:25,26. Seneca complaineth, that many in his time were more solicitous of their attire than of their good behaviour; and that they had rather the commonwealth should be troubled than their locks and set looks. And doth not our age abound with such fantastic Cincinnatuli?