(7) Remember . . .--Remember, Jehovah, for the children of Edom the day of Jerusalem. The prophecy of Obadiah gives the best comment on this verse: "For thy violence against thy brother Jacob shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off for ever. In the day that thou stoodest on the other side, in the day that the strangers carried away captive his forces, and foreigners entered into his gates and cast lots upon Jerusalem, even thou wast as one of them. But thou shouldest not have looked on the day of thy brother in the day that he became a stranger; neither shouldest thou have rejoiced over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction; neither shouldest thou have spoken proudly in the day of distress" (Obadiah 1:10-12.) (See Excursus on the date and authorship of that book.)

Rase . . .--Literally, make naked or bare. (Comp. a similar use of another verb, Micah 1:6.) The LXX. and Vulg. have "empty out, empty out."

Thereof.--Literally, in it.

Verse 7. - Remember, O Lord, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem; rather, remember, O Lord, to the children of Edom the day of Jerusalem. "The day of Jerusalem" is the day of her fall, when Edom took part with her enemies, and rejoiced at her destruction (see Lamentations 4:21, 22; Ezekiel 25:12; Ezekiel 35:5; Obadiah 1:10-14). The psalmist prays God to "remember" this to Edom, and requite it upon her (comp. Psalm 132:1, where the same expression is used in a good sense). Who said, Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof; i.e. "destroy the city utterly - leave not one stone upon another." The enmity between Edom and Israel was of the intensest character (see 1 Kings 11:15, 16; 1 Chronicles 18:12; Jeremiah 49:7-22; Amos 1:11, 12; Malachi 1:3-5).

137:5-9 What we love, we love to think of. Those that rejoice in God, for his sake make Jerusalem their joy. They stedfastly resolved to keep up this affection. When suffering, we should recollect with godly sorrow our forfeited mercies, and our sins by which we lost them. If temporal advantages ever render a profession, the worst calamity has befallen him. Far be it from us to avenge ourselves; we will leave it to Him who has said, Vengeance is mine. Those that are glad at calamities, especially at the calamities of Jerusalem, shall not go unpunished. We cannot pray for promised success to the church of God without looking to, though we do not utter a prayer for, the ruin of her enemies. But let us call to mind to whose grace and finished salvation alone it is, that we have any hopes of being brought home to the heavenly Jerusalem.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, Obadiah 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 (i) 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.

(i) "nudate", Vatablus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Cocceius, Schmidt.