Jehovah had foretold: “Moab herself will become just like Sodom, and the sons of Ammon like Gomorrah, a place possessed by nettles, and a salt pit, and a desolate waste, even to time indefinite.”
15 The angel said to Daniel: “From the time that the constant feature [“the continual sacrifice,” footnote] has been removed and there has been a placing of the disgusting thing that is causing desolation, there will be one thousand two hundred and ninety days.”
(Genesis 25:24-34; Numbers 20:14-21) The depth of Edom’s hatred for Judah became particularly evident during the desolation of Jerusalem when the Edomites cheered on the Babylonian soldiers.
21 Daniel was told: “From the time that the constant feature has been removed and there has been a placing of the disgusting thing that is causing desolation, there will be one thousand two hundred and ninety days.”
17 Remember, too, that in the first century, when the Roman army with its idolatrous standards made its way into the holy city of the Jews, it was there to bring desolation to Jerusalem and its system of worship.
In the 70th year of Judah’s desolation, what a comfort it will be for the captives to realize that the time for their promised deliverance is at hand! —Daniel 9:1, 2.
For example, at one time the people of Judah had four annual fasts to commemorate the calamitous events associated with Jerusalem’s siege and desolation in the seventh century B.C.E.
Revelation 17:16, 17 shows that God will yet put it into the hearts of certain human rulers who are prominent in this “beast” to desolate the world empire of false religion.