This refers to the idolatrous “image” that the Antichrist will set up in the temple in Jerusalem which the Jews will be forced to worship (Dan. 12:11; Matt. 24:15; Rev. 13:12-18). Gentiles in the empire of the Beast (the western nations) will also worship it (Rev. 13:12 – “the [prophetic] earth”). It will be “set up” in the middle of Daniel’s 70th week (Dan. 9:27; 12:11). The worship of the image by the mass of the Jews will call forth God’s judgment upon them in the form of a desolation of the land of Israel by an Arab confederacy of Islamic nations (Psa. 83:1-8; Dan. 11:40-42). A remnant of the Jews will, for conscience sake, refuse to bow to the image, and will be persecuted for it (Isa. 8:11-16; Matt. 24:21-22).