It is from the LXX. that we derive the famous expression, "abomination of desolation," referred to by St. Matthew (xxiv. 15: cf. Luke xxi. 20) in the last discourse of our Lord.
Other translations are as follows:--
_Gesenius_: "Desolation comes upon the horrible wing of a rebel's host."
_Ewald_: "And above will be the horrible wing of abominations."
_Wieseler_: "And a desolation shall arise against the wing of abominations."
_Von Lengerke, Hengstenberg, Pusey_: "And over the edge [or, pinnacle[627]] of abominations [cometh] the desolator";--which they understand to mean that Antiochus will rule over the Temple defiled by heathen rites.
_Kranichfeld and Keil_: "And a destroyer comes on the wings of idolatrous abominations."
_Kuenen_, followed by others, boldly alters the text from _ve'al k'naph_, "and upon the wing," into _ve'al kannô_, "and instead thereof."[628]
"And instead thereof" (_i.e._, in the place of the sacrifice and meat offering) "there shall be abominations."
It is needless to weary the reader with further attempts at translation; but however uncertain may be the exact reading or rendering, few modern commentators doubt that the allusion is to the smaller heathen altar built by Antiochus above (_i.e._, on the summit) of the "Most Holy"--_i.e._, the great altar of burnt sacrifice--overshadowing it like "a wing" (_kanaph_), and causing desolations or abominations (_shiqqootsîm_). That this interpretation is the correct one can hardly be doubted in the light of the clearer references to "the abomination that maketh desolate" in xi. 31 and xii. 11. In favour of this we have the almost contemporary interpretation of the Book of Maccabees. The author of that history directly applies the phrase "the abomination of desolation" to the idol altar set up by Antiochus (1 Macc. i. 54, vi. 7).
(η) Lastly, the terrible drama shall end by an outpouring of wrath, and a sentence of judgment on "the desolation" (R.V.) or "the desolate" (A.V.).
This can only refer to the ultimate judgment with which Antiochus is menaced.
It will be seen then that, despite all uncertainties in the text, in the translation, and in the details, we have in these verses an unmistakably clear foreshadowing of the same persecuting king, and the same disastrous events, with which the mind of the writer is so predominantly haunted, and which are still more clearly indicated in the subsequent chapter.
Is it necessary, after an inquiry inevitably tedious, and of little or no apparently spiritual profit or significance, to enter further into the intolerably and interminably perplexed and voluminous discussions as to the beginning, the ending, and the exactitude of the seventy weeks?[629] Even St. Jerome gives, by way of specimen, _nine_ different interpretations in his time, and comes to no decision of his own. After confessing that all the interpretations were individual guesswork, he leaves every reader to his own judgment, and adds: "_Dicam quid unusquisque senserit, lectoris arbitrio derelinquens cujus expositionem sequi debeat_."
I cannot think that the least advantage can be derived from doing so.
For scarcely any two leading commentators agree as to details;--or even as to any fixed principles by which they profess to determine the date at which the period of seventy weeks is to begin or is to end;--or whether they are to be reckoned continuously, or with arbitrary misplacements or discontinuations;--or even whether they are not purely symbolical, so as to have no reference to any chronological indications;[630]--or whether they are to be interpreted as referring to one special series of events, or to be regarded as having many fulfilments by "springing and germinal developments." The latter view is, however, distinctly tenable. It applies to all prophecies, inasmuch as history repeats itself; and our Lord referred to another "abomination of desolation" which in His days was yet to come.[631]
There is not even an initial agreement--or even the data as to an agreement--whether the "years" to be counted are solar years of three hundred and forty-three days, or lunar years, or "mystic" years, or Sabbath years of forty-nine years, or "indefinite" years; or where they are to begin and end, or in what fashion they are to be divided. All is chaos in the existing commentaries.