Albert Barnes Commentary Malachi 1:4

"Whereas Edom saith, We are beaten down, but we will return and build the waste places; thus saith Jehovah of hosts, They shall build, but I will throw down; and men shall call them The border of wickedness, and The people against whom Jehovah hath indignation for ever." — Malachi 1:4 (ASV)

Whereas Edom says -

We are impoverished - ידשׁשׁ, or, more probably, “we were crushed.” Either interpretation provides an adequate meaning. Human self-confidence will admit anything concerning the past; indeed, it will even exaggerate past evil to itself, saying, “Crush us as they may, we will arise and repair our losses.”

So Ephraim said long ago (Isaiah 9:9–10), in the pride and stoutness of heart, The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn-stones: the sycamores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars. It is the common language of what calls itself “indomitable”—in other words, “untameable”—whether spoken by conquerors or any other gambler: “we will repair our losses.” All is again staked and lost.

They shall call them the border of wickedness. Formerly, Edom had its own proper name, “the border of Edom,” just as other countries had theirs (Exodus 10:14, 10:19). There was “all the border of Egypt” (Deuteronomy 2:18), “the border of Moab” (1 Samuel 11:3), and references such as 1 Samuel 11:7; 1 Samuel 27:1; 1 Chronicles 21:12; “the whole border of Israel” (2 Chronicles 11:13), “the border of Israel” (Judges 11:22), and “the whole border of the Amorite.”

From now on, it would no longer be known by its own name, but as the border of wickedness—a place where wickedness formerly dwelt, and therefore the judgment of God and desolation from Him came upon it, making it “an accursed land.”

In a similar manner, Jeremiah says something about Jerusalem (Jeremiah 22:8–9): Many nations shall pass by this city, and they shall say, every man to his neighbor, Wherfore hath the Lord done this unto this great city? Then they shall answer, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord their God, and worshiped other gods and served them.

Only Israel would retain its name, as it has; Edom would be blotted out completely and forever.