John Gill Bible Commentary

Let their habitation be desolate,.... Which is applied to Judas, Act 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 Isa 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, Mat 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, Luk 19:44. (k) "palatium eorum", Pagninus, Montanus, Tigurine version, Cocceius, Michaelis; "castella eorum", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "palatium vel casteilum eorum", Gejerus; so Ainsworth.