Remember, O Lord, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem,.... Of her visitation, calamity, and destruction, how they behaved then, and them for it; who, though the children of Esau and brethren of the Jews, as well as their neighbours, yet hated them; the old grudge of their father, because of the birthright and blessing, as well as the old enmity of the serpent, continuing in them; and who rejoiced at their ruin, helped forward their affliction, and were assistants to the Babylonians in the plunder and destruction of them, Ob 1:11.
The Targum is,"Michael, the prince of Jerusalem, said, remember, O Lord, the people of Edom who destroyed Jerusalem.''Many Jewish writers, as Aben Ezra observes, interpret this of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans:who said, rase [it], rase [it even] to the foundation thereof: or "make [it] naked" or "bare to the foundation"; pull down its walls, lay them level with the ground; root up the very foundation of them, and let nothing be left or seen but the bare naked ground; so spiteful and malicious were they.