Zephaniah 1:8

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 () 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...

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....

Verse 8. _I 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....

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 m...

EXPOSITION. ZEPHANIAH 1:1 Part I. THE JUDGMENT UPON ALL THE WORLD, AND UPON JUDAH IN PARTICULAR. ZEPHANIAH 1:1 § 1. _Title and inscription. _THE WORD OF THE LORD (see note on Micah 1:1). Zephaniah, "Whom the Lord shelters" (see Introduction, § II.). THE SON OF, etc. The genealogy thus introduced shows that the prophet was of illustrious descent; or it may be inserted to distinguish him from others who bore the same name.

AND IT SHALL COME TO PASS IN THE DAY OF THE LORD'S SACRIFICE,.... When the above sacrifice prepared shall be offered, and the slaughter of his people made, when his wrath shall be poured out upon them, within the time of its beginning and ending: THAT I WILL PUNISH THE PRINCES, AND THE KING'S CHILDREN; either the children of Josiah, who, though a good prince, his children did evil in the sight of the Lord, and were punished by him: Jehoahaz, after a three months' reign was carried down to Egypt, and died there; Jehoiakim, his elder brother, that succeeded him, rebelling against the king of Babylon, in the fourth year of his reign, fell into his hands, and died, and was buried with the burial of an ass; and Jeconiah his son was carried captive into Babylon, and there remained to the day of his death; and with him were carried the whole royal family, and all the princes, and all the might...

ANALYSIS AND ANNOTATIONS CHAPTER 1 The Day of the Lord, the Day of Judgment _ 1. The judgment of all the world (Zephaniah 1:1) _ 2. The judgment will destroy the evildoers in Judah (Zephaniah 1:4) 3. The day of the Lord (Zephaniah 1:14) Zephaniah 1:1. The first verse is the superscription, and tells us, as pointed out in the introduction, of the connection of Zephaniah and the date of his prophecy. Then comes the announcement of the judgment. It is to consume all things from off the face of the land, man and beast, the fowls of heaven, the fishes of the sea, and end the stumb

THE DOOM OF JUDAH AND JERUSALEM. Zephaniah 1:2. Riding as it were on the crest of a tidal wave of destruction, which sweeps off man and beast from the face of the ground, Yahweh stretches His hand against Judah and Jerusalem, the centre of the world's offence, to cut off the priests and worshippers of Baal, together with all such as prostrate themselves before the host of heaven, mingle the worship of Yahweh with that of Molech, or otherwise prove traitor to the God of their fathers, withdrawing from His allegiance and ceasing to inquire after Him. ZEPHANIAH 1:2. GROUND: the cultivated, inhabited, civilised world. Zephaniah 1:3. For the stumbling-blocks with (a rendering as dubious as it

THE DAY OF THE LORD'S SACRIFICE. See notes on Isaiah 2:12; Isaiah 13:6. DAY. Put by Figure of speech _Metonymy_ (of Adjunct), App-6, for the judgments executed in it. PUNISH. visit upon. Reference to Pentateuch (Exodus 32:34). App-92. Compare Jeremiah 9:25; Jeremiah 11:22; Jeremiah 13:21, &c. CHILDREN. sons: i.e. the royal house. Compare...

_I will punish the princes_ lit. _visit upon_the princes. The princes are the nobles, particularly those entrusted with judicial and similar offices. _the king's children_ The children of the king are the royal house in general, hardly Josiah's own sons, who in the eighteenth year of his reign were aged ten and twelve (2 Kings 23:31; 2 Kings 23:36). For "children" Sept. reads _house_of the king, a reading which at least suggests the right meaning. The words "children" and "house" are occasionally confused. Sept. reads "house" where Heb. has "children" in Jeremiah 16:15; Eze 2:3; 1 Chronicles 2:10, and o