Let their habitation be desolate. Here he proceeds farther than in the preceding verse, praying that God would cause his wrath to descend to their posterity; and it is no new thing for the sins of the fathers to be cast into the bosom of the children. As David uttered these imprecations by the inspiration and influence of the Holy Spirit, so he took them out of the law itself, in which God threatens that he will "visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate him," (Exodus 20:5) In this way he desires that the memorial of them may be cursed, and that thus God would not spare them even after their death.

Let their habitation be desolate - Margin, "their palace." The Hebrew word means properly a wall; then, a fortress or castle; and then it means also a nomadic encampment, a rustic village, a farm-hamlet. The word conveys the idea of an "enclosure," with special reference to an encampment, or a collection of tents. The Septuagint renders it here ἔπαυλις epaulis, meaning a place to pass the night in, especially for flocks and herds. The Hebrew word - טירה ṭı̂yrâh - is rendered "castles" in Genesis 25:16; Numbers 31:10; 1-Chronicles 6:54; "palaces" in Song 8:9; Ezekiel 25:4; "rows" in Ezekiel 46:23; and "habitation" in this place. It does not occur elsewhere. Here it means their "home," - their place of abode, - but with no particular reference to the "kind" of home, whether a palace, a castle, or an encampment. The idea is, that the place which they had occupied, or where they had dwelt, would be made vacant. They would be removed, and the place would be solitary and forsaken. It is equivalent to a prayer that they might be destroyed.
And let none dwell in their tents - Margin, as in Hebrew, "let there not be a dweller." That is, Let their tents where they had dwelt be wholly forsaken. This passage is quoted in Acts 1:20, as applicable to Judas. See the notes at that passage.

Let their (t) habitation be desolate; [and] let none dwell in their tents.
(t) Punish not only them, but their posterity, who will be like them.

Let their habitation be desolate,.... Which is applied to Judas, Acts 1:20; but not to the exclusion of others; for it must be understood of the habitations of others; even of their princes and nobles, their chief magistrates, high priest and other priests, scribes, and doctors of the law: for the word may be rendered, "their palace" or "castle" (k), as it is by some; and so may denote the houses of their principal men, the members of their sanhedrim; their houses great and fair, of which there were many in Jerusalem when it was destroyed; see Isaiah 5:9; as well as the habitations of the meaner sort of people, which all became desolate at that time; and particularly their house, the temple, which was like a palace or castle, built upon a mountain. This was left desolate, as our Lord foretold it would, Matthew 23:38;
and let none dwell in their tents; the city of Jerusalem was wholly destroyed and not a house left standing in it, nor an inhabitant of it; it was laid even with the ground, ploughed up, and not one stone left upon another, Luke 19:44.
(k) "palatium eorum", Pagninus, Montanus, Tigurine version, Cocceius, Michaelis; "castella eorum", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "palatium vel casteilum eorum", Gejerus; so Ainsworth.