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.