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.

Wesley's Notes

1:8 The princes - The great ones, who dreamed of shifting better than others, but fell with the first, 2Kings 25:19 - 21. Children - Sons and grand - children, Josiah: Jehoahaz died a captive in Egypt, 2Kings 23:34, Jehoakim died in Babylon, and was buried with the burial of an ass, Jer 22:18,19, Jeconiah died a captive: and Zedekiah and his children, fared still worse. Strange apparel - The garb of foreigners, imitated by the wanton Jews.

King James Translators' Notes

punish: Heb. visit upon

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

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).

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

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.