Zephaniah 1:8

The king’s children. — The misfortunes which were to befall Josiah’s children, Jehoahaz and Jehoiakim (see 2 Kings 23:24), are perhaps in the prophet’s eye. But if we are correct in our view of the date of writing (see Introd. II.) these princes must have been as yet mere children, and could hardly have provoked the prophet’s curse by any extraordinary display of wickedness. It therefore appears better to suppose that the king’s brothers or uncles are meant. (Comp. the phrase in 2 Kings 11:2; 2 Chronicles 22:11.)

Clothed with strange apparel. — Zephaniah means those who have imitated the luxurious dress of foreign nations: e.g., perhaps the gorgeous apparel of Assyria and Babylonia (Ezekiel 23:12). This desire for strange clothing is specially noticed as a mark of apostasy, because the national dress, with its blue riband at the fringe, was appointed that the Jews might “look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the Lord, and do them” (Numbers 15:38).