Daniel 11:31, commentary and pictures

The verse describes forces standing on behalf of the power in the prophecy to defile the sanctuary of strength, to remove the daily, and to set up the abomination that makes desolate. The term sacrifice is a human-supplied addition that does not belong to the text. The correct view of the daily was given to those who proclaimed the judgment-hour message, and nearly all were united on it before 1844, but after 1844 other views arose amid confusion and darkness, and time has not been a test since 1844 and will never again be a test. The meaning of the daily in the verse is disputed, but the difference of views is not of vital importance and is not to be made a test of faith.

The abomination that makes desolate is the idolatrous standards of the Roman armies set up on ground regarded as holy outside Jerusalem. Its appearance was the warning sign given by Christ that those in Judea and Jerusalem must flee at once without turning back for possessions or clothing, because delay meant being caught in the general destruction. When it appears where it ought not, an unprecedented time of affliction is coming. The destruction of Jerusalem that it signals serves as a type of the final destruction of the world by fire, and the Sabbath remains the creation Sabbath still to be observed.

The verse belongs to the revelations of the mysteries of ages to come that were not fully understood even by Daniel and were ordered to be shut up and sealed until the time of the end, and in the closing period of this world's history its words are to be unsealed, and Daniel will stand in his lot and place. It belongs to a prophecy whose complete fulfillment was nearing, and its fulfillment is associated with coming scenes of trouble and the nearness of the end. Much of the history fulfilled in the verse will be repeated, and the scenes described in verses 31 to 36 will occur again.