Zephaniah 1:8
in Zephaniah 1“On the Day of the LORD’s sacrifice I will punish the princes, the sons of the king, and all who are dressed in foreign apparel.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
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.
KJV
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.
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This verse in Zephaniah 1
Commentary
9 notes on this verseI will punish the princes, and the king’s children - After the death of Josiah the kingdom of Judah saw no prosperity, and every reign terminated miserably; until at last King Zedekiah and the king’s children were cruelly massacred at Riblah, when Nebuchadnezzar had taken Jerusalem. Strange apparel - I really think this refers more to their embracing idolatrous customs and heathen usages, than to their changing their dress. They acquired new habits, as we would say; customs, that they used as they did their clothing - at all times, and in every thing.
This site's exposition
clothed with strange apparel
on Zephaniah 1:8-9
The princes and king's children punished for strange apparel points to a court that had adopted foreign fashion as it had adopted foreign gods, dressing itself in the manner of the nations Judah was meant to be distinct from. Leaping on the threshold in verse 9 is read by the bench against the account at 1 Samuel 5:5, where Dagon's priests would not tread on his temple's threshold after the idol fell there, a superstition Zephaniah accuses Jerusalem's own household servants of having picked up. Filling their masters' houses with violence and deceit turns a foreign superstition into a charge of plain theft, the borrowed custom and the corruption named in the same verse.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
(Verse 8, 9.) And it shall come to pass on the day of the Lord's sacrifice, that I will punish the princes and the king's sons, and all who are clothed with foreign apparel. And I will punish everyone who arrogantly enters over the threshold on that day, those who fill the house of the Lord their God with iniquity and deceit.
The Puritans and the Awakening4 voices
The princes - The great ones, who dreamed of shifting better than others, but fell with the first, 2 Kings xxv, 19-21. Children - Sons and grand-children, Josiah: Jehoahaz died a captive in Egypt, 2 Kings xxiii, 34, Jehoakim died in Babylon, and was buried with the burial of an ass, Jer. xxii, 18, 19, Jeconiah died a captive: and Zedekiah and his children, fared still worse.
10 ), but they must send abroad to strange countries for their clothes, which would not please unless they were far-fetched and dear-bought; and even those of inferior rank affected to imitate the princes and the king's children. Pride in apparel is displeasing to God, and a symptom of the degeneracy of a people.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-citation-number+unbalanced-parens
And it shall come to pass in the day of the Lord's sacrifice,....
What good can the best reformers do with a people that hate to be reformed, as if they longed to be ruined? The summary, or contents, of this book. The general proposition contained in it is, That utter destruction is coming apace upon Judah and Jerusalem for sin.
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
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).
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
I will punish - (Literally, visit upon). God seems oftentimes to be away from His own world. People plot, design, say, in word or in deed, “who is Lord over us?” God is, as it were, a stranger in it, or as a man, who hath “taken a journey into afar country.” God uses our own language to us. “I will visit,” inspecting (so to say), examining, sifting, reviewing, and when man’s sins require it, allowing the weight of His displeasure to fall upon them. The princes - The prophet again, in vivid detail (as his characteristic is), sets forth together sin and punishment. Amid the general chastisement of all, when all should become one sacrifice, they who sinned most should 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 thine heart was tender, and thou hast humbled thyself before the Lord - I will gather thee unto thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered unto thy grave in peace, and thou shalt not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place” 2Ki 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” Jer 1:18 should war against him, because he should speak unto them all which God should command him. […]
The words behind it
15 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וְהָיָ֗ה | vehayah | and it will be | H1961 → | 3559 times |
| בְּיוֹם֙ | beyom | on [the] day of | H3117 → | 2304 times |
| זֶ֣בַח | zevach | [the] sacrifice of | H2077 → | |
| יְהוָ֔ה | yahweh | Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
| וּפָקַדְתִּ֥י | ufakadti | and I will visit [judgment] | H6485 → | 303 times |
| עַל־ | ʾal- | on | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| הַשָּׂרִ֖ים | hasarim | the princes | H8269 → | |
| וְעַל־ | veal- | and on | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| בְּנֵ֣י | benei | [the] sons of | H1121 → | 4930 times |
| הַמֶּ֑לֶךְ | hamelekh | the king | H4428 → | 2525 times |
| וְעַ֥ל | veal | and on | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| כָּל־ | kol- | all | H3605 → | 5413 times |
| הַלֹּבְשִׁ֖ים | haloeshim | those [who] are clothed | H3847 → | |
| מַלְבּ֥וּשׁ | malbush | clothing | H4403 → | |
| נָכְרִֽי׃ | nakheri | foreign | H5237 → |
וְהָיָ֗הand it will be
vehayahH1961 →3559 times
בְּיוֹם֙on [the] day of
beyomH3117 →2304 times
זֶ֣בַח[the] sacrifice of
zevachH2077 →
יְהוָ֔הYahweh
yahwehH3068 →6520 times
וּפָקַדְתִּ֥יand I will visit [judgment]
ufakadtiH6485 →303 times
עַל־on
ʾal-H5921 →5755 times
הַשָּׂרִ֖יםthe princes
hasarimH8269 →
וְעַל־and on
veal-H5921 →5755 times
בְּנֵ֣י[the] sons of
beneiH1121 →4930 times
הַמֶּ֑לֶךְthe king
hamelekhH4428 →2525 times
וְעַ֥לand on
vealH5921 →5755 times
כָּל־all
kol-H3605 →5413 times
הַלֹּבְשִׁ֖יםthose [who] are clothed
haloeshimH3847 →
מַלְבּ֥וּשׁclothing
malbushH4403 →
נָכְרִֽי׃foreign
nakheriH5237 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Isaiah 24:21In that day the LORD will punish the host of heaven above and the kings of the earth below.
it leads to
- Psalms 76:12
He breaks the spirits of princes; He is feared by the kings of the earth.
- Zechariah 14:12–19
And this will be the plague with which the LORD strikes all the peoples who have warred against Jerusalem: Their flesh will rot while they stand on their feet, their eyes will rot in…
- Isaiah 34:2–17
The LORD is angry with all the nations and furious with all their armies. He will devote them to destruction; He will give them over to slaughter.
- Isaiah 10:12
So when the Lord has completed all His work against Mount Zion and Jerusalem, He will say, “I will punish the king of Assyria for the fruit of his arrogant heart and the proud…
- Psalms 149:6–9
May the high praises of God be in their mouths, and a double-edged sword in their hands,
- Psalms 76:12
Through
Isaiah 39:7And some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood, will be taken away to be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”
it leads to
- Daniel 1:1–7
In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it.
- 2 Kings 24:12
Jehoiachin king of Judah, his mother, his servants, his commanders, and his officials all surrendered to the king of Babylon. So in the eighth year of his reign, the king of Babylon took him…
- 2 Chronicles 36:10
In the spring, King Nebuchadnezzar summoned Jehoiachin and brought him to Babylon, along with the articles of value from the house of the LORD. And he made Jehoiachin’s relative Zedekiah king over Judah and…
- Daniel 1:1–7
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Zephaniah
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Zephaniah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.