Zephaniah 1:9

Their masters’ houses. — Better, their lord’s house, meaning the temple of their idol-deity. Probably the true interpretation of this obscure verse is that the idolaters had adopted a usage prevalent in the Philistine temples of Dagon — that of leaping over the threshold on entering the idol’s temple. (See 1 Samuel 5:5.) When they entered it they filled it with “violence and deceit” by bringing thither offerings acquired by fraud and oppression. Another interpretation makes the verse relate exclusively to plunder and unjust acquisition of goods. “Leaping the threshold” is then expounded as “a sudden rushing into houses to steal the property of strangers,” and the offenders are identified as “servants of the king, who thought they could best serve their master by extorting treasures from their dependants by violence and fraud” (Ewald). It does not seem likely that such malpractices would have been tolerated among the retainers of the pious Josiah; it is possible, however, to suppose that he had not yet acquired sufficient authority to check them.