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.
I will punish the princes - who ought to have been an example of good to others, but were ringleaders in all evil.
And the king's children. Fulfilled (Jeremiah 39:6) on Zedekiah's children, "The king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah in Riblah before his eyes;" and previously on Jehoahaz (deposed and put in bonds by Pharaoh-necho at Riblah, and carded to Egypt) and Eliakim (called Jehoiakim by Pharaoh-necho, who raised him to the throne; subsequently bound in fetters by Nebuchadnezzar, in order to be carried to Babylon, but put to death on the way, and his carcass thrown outside of Jerusalem, the Babylonian king having changed his first intention; Jeremiah 22:19, note), the sons of Josiah (2 Kings 23:31; 2 Kings 23:36; 2 Chronicles 36:6: cf. also 2 Kings 20:18). The king's children probably took a prominent part in the idolatries perpetrated at Jerusalem. Therefore they are specified for punishment. Huldah the prophetess (2 Kings 22:20) intimated that which Zephaniah now more expressly foretells, "Thine (Josiah's) eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place:" cf. 2 Kings 21:10; 2 Kings 21:13-15, "The Lord spake by his servants the prophets (in Manasseh's reign, previous to Zephaniah's prophecies in Josiah's reign), saying, Behold, I am bringing such evil upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whosoever heareth of it, both his ears shall tingle. And I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, and the plummet of the house of Ahab; and I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it, and turning it upside down."
And 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 they imitated, as well as their idolatries (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-e.g., men's garments worn by women, and vice versa-a pagan usage in the worship of Mars and Venus (Deuteronomy 22:5, "The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the Lord thy God." I think the reference is to the outlandish "vestments" (imported, like the idolatry itself, from the pagan abroad) in which the idolatrous Jews worshipped the idols. So the idolatrous Chemarim (Zephaniah 1:4) wore a black garment. Also, when the worshippers of Baal were summoned together by Jehu, and filled the house of Baal "from one end to another," Jehu "said unto him that was over the vestry, Bring forth vestments for all the worshippers of Baal. And he brought them forth vestments." What a blessed contrast is presented by the "fine linen, clean and white," granted unto the Church, even "the righteousness of saints" (Revelation 19:8), which is the righteousness of Christ.