Seventh Bowl and Judgment of Great Harlot

Then one of the seven angels

who were carrying the seven bowls

came and spoke to me.

“Come with me”, he said,

“and I will show you the doom of

the great Harlot

who sits upon many waters.

The kings of the earth

have committed fornication with her,

and the inhabitants of the earth

have been made drunk

with the wine of her fornication.”

So he carried me away in the Spirit into a desert,

and there I saw

a woman sitting on a scarlet-colored Wild Beast

which was covered with names of blasphemy

and had seven heads and ten horns.

The woman was clothed in purple and scarlet,

and was brilliantly attired

with gold and jewels and pearls.

She held in her hand a cup of gold,

full of abominations and the impurities of her fornication.

d on her forehead was a name written which is symbolical of

“Babylon,

the great mother of the harlots

and of the abominations of the earth.”

And I saw the woman drinking herself drunk

with the blood of the saints,

and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus.

And when I saw her,

I was filled with utter astonishment.

Then the angel said to me:

“Why are you so astonished?

I will explain to you

the secret meaning of the woman

and of the

seven-headed, ten-horned Wild Beast

which carries her.

“The Wild Beast which you have seen:

was,

and is not,

and yet is destined to re-ascend,

out of the bottomless pit,

nd go his way into perdition.

And the inhabitants of the earth

will be filled with amazement--

all whose names

have not been inscribed in the Book of Life

from the foundation of the world

---

when they see the Wild Beast:

because he was,

and is not,

and yet is to come.

Here is scope for the exercise of a mind

that has wisdom!

The seven heads are the seven hills

on which the woman sits.

and they are seven kings:

five of them have fallen,

and one is reigning.

The seventh has not yet come,

but when he comes

he must continue for a short time.

And the Wild Beast which once existed

but does not now exist --

he is an eighth king

and yet is one of the seven,

and he goes his way into perdition......

“And the ten horns which you have seen

are ten kings who have not yet come to the throne,

but for a

single hour

they are to receive authority as kings

along with the Wild Beast.

They have one common policy:

and they are to give their power

and authority to the Wild Beast.

They will make war upon the Lamb,

and

the Lamb will triumph over them

;

for

He is Lord of lords and King of kings

And those who accompany Him

--called, as they are, and chosen, and faithful--

shall share in the victory.”

He also said to me,

“The waters which you have seen,

on which the Harlot sits,

are peoples and multitudes, nations, and languages.

And the ten horns that you have seen--and the Wild Beast--

these will hate the Harlot,

and they will make her desolate and will strip her bare.

They will eat her flesh, and burn her up with fire.

For

God has put it into their hearts

to carry out His purpose with one intent,

and to give their kingdom to

the Wild Beast

until

God’s words have been fulfilled

And the woman whom you have seen

is the great city

which reigns over the kings of the earth.”

Revelation 17

Appendix – Seventh Bowl Expanded

17:1 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and talked with me, saying, “Come,
I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters,

Further detail of what proclaimed in 14:8
The destruction of Babylon mentioned in 16:17-21 is not described in greater detail (LB)
A new vision (MH)
The great harlot – the great persecuting power (W)
The prostitute represents the seductiveness of the governmental system as it used immoral means to gain its own

pleasure, prosperity, and advantage. (LB)

The whore is the apostate church (JFB)
The great prostitute symbolizes human society without God. She epitomizes irresponsible power, inhumanity and

hatred of all that the church stands for. She is a prostitute because she turns people away from their true loyalty to God
and into idolatry. (TB)

The original readers easily identified Babylon with Rome, but it also symbolizes any system that is hostile to God (LB)

References: Revelation 1:1; 15:1, 7; 16:19; 17:5, 15; 19:2; 21:9; Isaiah 1:21 (How the faithful city has become a harlot! It was full of justice;
righteousness lodged in it, but now murderers); Jeremiah 2:20 (For of old I have broken your yoke and burst your bonds; and you said, ‘I will not
transgress,’ when on every high hill and under every green tree you lay down, playing the harlot.); 51:13 (O you who dwell by many waters,
abundant in treasures, your end has come, the measure of your covetousness); Nahum 3:4 (Because of the multitude of harlotries of the
seductive harlot, the mistress of sorceries, who sells nations through her harlotries, and families through her sorceries); Isaiah 23:15

17:2 “with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth were
made drunk with the wine of her fornication.”

Committed adultery – have concluded political and economic treaties (Z)
Drunk with – owing to (JFB)
The indication is that she made them drunk with power, material possessions, false worship, and pride. (NCBH)

References: Revelation 2:22; 3:10; 14:8; 17:8; 18:3, 9; Jeremiah 51:7 (Babylon was a golden cup in the Lord’s hand, that made all the earth
drunk. The nations drank her wine; therefore the nations are deranged.)

17:3 So he carried me away in the Spirit into the wilderness. And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet
beast which was full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.

The beast on which she rides shall be the instrument of judgment on her (JFB)
As the dragon is fiery-red, so the beast is blood-red in color; implying its blood-guiltiness, and also deep-dyed sin.

The scarlet is also the symbol of kingly authority. (JFB)

Full – all over; not merely ‘on his heads’, for its opposition to God is now about to develop itself in all its intensity.

Under the harlot’s superintendence, the world power puts forth blasphemous pretensions worse than in pagan days. (JFB)

References: Revelation 1:10; 12:3, 6, 14; 13:1; 17:7, 9, 12, 16; 18:12, 16; 21:10; Matthew 27:28

17:4 The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and
pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of the fornication of the
earth.

Adorned – gilded (NAS)
Purple – scarlet – gold – pearls – indicates her great wealth (W)
This cup is a blasphemous counterfeit to the cup of Christ. It holds a deadly mixture of worldly riches, false spirituality,

and sexual immorality.

References: Ezekiel 28:13 (You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering: the sardius, topaz, and diamond,
beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and emerald with gold. The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes); Revelation 14:8; 18:6, 12, 16;
Daniel 11:38 (But in their place he shall honor a god of fortresses; and a god which his fathers did not know he shall honor with gold and silver, with
precious stones and pleasant things); Jeremiah 51:7 (Babylon was a golden cup in the Lord’s hand, that made all the earth drunk. The nations
drank her wine; therefore the nations are deranged.)

17:5 And on her forehead a name was written:

MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT,

THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE

ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

Babylon the Great – her name seems to contain the interpretation, or explanation of the ‘mystery’ (W)
Mystery – indicates that the name she bears is not to be understood literally, but allegorically (Z)
Mystery may be the first part of the title for Babylon the Great (NCBH)
Upon forehead – as harlots usually had. What a contrast to “Holiness to the Lord’ inscribed on the miter on the high

priest’s forehead. (JFB)

Mystery – implying a spiritual fact heretofore hidden and incapable of discovery by mere reason, but now

revealed. (JFB)

As iniquity in the harlot is a leaven working in ‘mystery’ and therefore called ‘the mystery of iniquity’ so when she is

destroyed, the iniquity heretofore working (comparatively) latently in her, shall be ‘revealed’ in the ‘the man of iniquity’, the
open embodiment of all previous evil. (JFB)

The invisible church of true believers is hidden and dispersed in the visible church. The boundary lines which

separate harlot and woman are not denominational nor drawn externally, but can only be spiritually discerned. (JFB)

External extensiveness over the whole world and internal conformity to the world – worldliness in extent and contents
– is symbolized by the name of the world city, ‘Babylon’. (JFB)
Not only a harlot – but a mother of harlots (MH)

References: 2 Thessalonians 2:7 (For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken
out of the way); Revelation 1:20; 14:8; 16:19; 17:2, 7

17:6 I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.
And when I saw her, I marveled with great amazement.

Her diet: she satiated herself with the blood of the saints and martyrs of Jesus. She drank their blood with such

greediness that she intoxicated herself with it (MH)

Martyrs – witnesses (JFB)
Saints – true believers – holy ones (NAS)
Amazement – great wonder (NAS)
John is astonished because of the mystery of the seeming defeat of good and victory of evil. He has been invited to

look at the judgment of the great prostitute but he sees her instead destroying the people of God. (TB)

The woman sunken into the harlot, the church becomes a world-loving apostate, moves his sorrowful astonishment at

so awful a change. That the world should be beastly is natural, but that the faithful bride should become the whore is
monstrous, and excites the same amazement in him as the same awful change in Israel excited in Isaiah and Jeremiah.
“Horrible thing” in them answers to “abominations” here. (JFB)

When the church falls, she sinks lower than the godless world, in proportion as her right place is higher than the

world. (JFB)

References: Revelation 6:9, 10; 13:15; 16:6; 18:24

The Meaning of the Woman and the Beast

17:7 But the angel said to me, “Why did you marvel? I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the
beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and the ten horns.

Marvel – wondered (NAS)
How long will God allow it to continue? The angel proceeds to show John the prostitute’s fate. (TB)
Warning: don’t marvel at her. Temptation to marvel at the systems of the world.
John’s angel-interpreter explains the mystery. The woman and the beast that carries her form one mystery. To know

the one is to know the other. The seven kings describe world power as it exists throughout all generations. John says in
this mysterious statement that, one after another, the kingdoms of the world will fall; then, last of all, the supernatural power
which sustains them will also go to its destruction. (TB)

References: Revelation 1:20; 17:3, 5; 2 Thessalonians 2:7

17:8 “The beast that you saw was, and is not, and will ascend out of the bottomless pit and go to
perdition. And those who dwell on the earth will marvel, whose names are not written in the Book of
Life from the foundation of the world, when they see the beast that was, and is not, and shall be present.

Once was, now is not, and will come – an obvious imitation of the description of the Lamb. (Z) Here the phrase seems

to mean that the beast appeared once, is not presently evident, but will in the future again make his presence known. Evil is
persistent. Although evil is real and persistent, there is no uncertainty about its ultimate fate. (NIV)

The beast, or antichristian world power, returns worse than ever, with satanic powers from hell, not merely from the

sea of convulsed nations. (JFB)

While the beast is the empire, the interpretation oscillates between the empire and its personification in the persecuting
emperor who after his mortal wound comes to life again as the last antichrist (Z)

References: Revelation 3:5, 10; 11:7; 13:1, 3, 8, 10, 12, 14; 9:1; 13:1, 8, 10; 17:11; Matthew 25:34 (Then the King will say to those on His right
hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.)

17:9 “Here is the mind which has wisdom: the seven heads are seven mountains on which the
woman sits.

The connection between mountains and kings must be deeper than the mere outward fact to which incidental

allusion is made. The true connection is, as the head is the prominent part of the body, so the mountain is prominent in
the land. (JFB)

Seven mountains may refer to successive world empires, since mountains are typically symbols of earthly kingdoms

or empires. (NCBH)

References: Revelation 13:1, 18; 17:3

17:10 “There are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, and the other has not yet come. And
when he comes, he must continue a short time.

Seven kings – seven sorts of government (MH)
The first five of the seven are fallen – a word applicable not to forms of government passing away, but to the fall of

once powerful empires (JFB)

Refernces: Revelation 10:11; 13:5

17:11 “The beast that was, and is not, is himself also the eighth, and is of the seven, and is going to
perdition.

The antichrist, who plays the role of a king (belongs to the seven) but is in reality part of the cosmic struggle between

God and satan (NIV)

The antichrist manifested in fullest and most intense opposition to God (JFB)
Himself – He – answering to ‘the little horn’ with eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things,

before whom three of the ten horns were plucked up by the roots (JFB)

The eighth is not merely one of the seven restored, but a new power or person proceeding out of the seven, and at

the same time embodying all the God-opposed features of the previous seven concentrated and consummated. (JFB)

In the birth-pangs which prepare the ‘regeneration’ there are wars, earthquakes, and disturbances, wherein antichrist

takes his rise. He does not fall like the other seven, but is destroyed, going to his own perdition, by the Lord in person. (JFB)

References: Revelation 13:3, 10, 12, 14; 17:8

17:12 “The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have received no kingdom as yet, but they
receive authority for one hour as kings with the beast.

Rome is a good example of how the antichrist’s system will work, demanding complete allegiance, and ruling by raw

power, oppression, and slavery (LB)

It seems that these ten kings or kingdoms, are to be contemporaries with the beast in its last or eighth form, viz.,

antichrist. (JFB)

One hour – a short time (NIV) Probably three and a half years (JFB)
As kings implies that they reserve their kingly rights in their alliance with the beast, wherein ‘they give their power

and strength unto’ him (JFB)

Antichrist is in existence long before the fall of Babylon; but it is only at its fall he obtains the vassalage of the ten kings.

He in the first instance imposes on the Jews as the Messiah, coming in his own name; then persecutes those of them who
refuse his blasphemous pretensions. Not until the sixth vial, in the latter part of his reign, does he associate the ten kings
with him in war with the Lamb, having gained them over by the aid of the spirits of devils working miracles. His connection
with Israel appears from his sitting “in the temple of God”, and as the antitypical “abomination of desolation standing in the
Holy place”, and “in the city where our Lord was crucified”. (JFB)

References: Daniel 7:20 (and the ten horns that were on its head, and the other horn which came up, before which three fell, namely, that horn
which had eyes and a mouth which spoke pompous words, whose appearance was greater than his fellows); Revelation 12:3; 13:1; 17:16;
18:10, 17, 19

17:13 “These are of one mind, and they will give their power and authority to the beast.

Mind – purpose (NAS) - one sentiment (JFB)
The antichrist sets up to be ‘King of kings’, but scarcely has he put forth his claim when the true King of kings appears

and dashes him down in a moment of destruction (JFB)

References: Revelation 17:17

17:14 “These will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for He is Lord of lords
and King of kings; and those who are with Him are called, chosen, and faithful.”

Chosen – the few are the bride; few are willing to pay the price in order to be chosen; qualification for chosen: faithful
The ‘peoples’ here mark the universality of the spiritual fornication of the church. (JFB)

References: Revelation 2:10; 3:21; 16:14; 19:16, 19, 20; Deuteronomy 10:17 (For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great
God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality nor takes a bribe); 1 Timothy 6:15 (which He will manifest in His own time, He who is the
blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords); Jeremiah 50:44 (Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the floodplain of the
Jordan against the dwelling place of the strong; but I will make them suddenly run away from her. And who is a chosen man that I may appoint
over her? For who is like Me? Who will arraign Me? And who is that shepherd who will withstand Me?); Matthew 22:14 (For many are called, but
few are chosen)

17:15 Then he said to me, “The waters which you saw, where the harlot sits, are peoples, multitudes,
nations, and tongues.

Many waters – her reign extends to peoples, multitudes, nations, and languages. She represents a vast spiritual

network that stands for everything that God hates. She is strategic and intent upon bringing millions under spiritual and
sexual bondage.

References: Isaiah 8:7 (Now therefore, behold, the Lord brings up over them the waters of the River, strong and mighty—the king of Assyria and
all his glory; he will go up over all his channels and go over all his banks); Jeremiah 47:2 (Thus says the Lord: “Behold, waters rise out of the
north, and shall be an overflowing flood; they shall overflow the land and all that is in it, the city and those who dwell within; then the men shall cry,
and all the inhabitants of the land shall wail); Revelation 5:9; 13:7; 17:1

17:16 “And the ten horns which you saw on the beast, these will hate the harlot, make her desolate
and naked, eat her flesh and burn her with fire.

In a dramatic turn of events, the woman’s allies turn on her and destroy her. This is how evil operates. Destructive by

its very nature, it discards its own adherents when they cease to serve its purposes. An unholy alliance is an uneasy
alliance, because each partner puts its own interests first. (LB)

Here is the fate of false religion. It brings about its own destruction. The world power (the beast with the ten hors), in

which she trusts, rises in rebellion and destroys her (TB)

God’s judgment on the great harlot Babylon is a judgment on a worldwide demonic economic and religious network

based in the city of Babylon because it will seduce many to do evil and to persecute the saints. God will judge this city in
two stages. First, this worldwide religious system of toleration and syncretism will fall in the middle of the seven year period,
at the hands of ten kings who will burn it. They will replace it with the antichrist’s strict religious system and re-established it
as one of the antichrist’s headquarters. Second, it will fall when Jesus returns.

Eat her flesh – Greek plural, ‘masses of flesh’, i.e., ‘carnal possessions’; implying the fullness of carnality into which the
church is sunk (JFB)
Burn with fire – the legal punishment of an abominable fornication (JFB)

References: Jeremiah 50:41 (Behold, a people shall come from the north, and a great nation and many kings shall be raised up from the ends
of the earth); Revelation 17:12; 18:8, 17, 19; 19:18; Ezekiel 16:37 (surely, therefore, I will gather all your lovers with whom you took pleasure, all
those you loved, and all those you hated; I will gather them from all around against you and will uncover your nakedness to them, that they may
see all your nakedness), 39 (I will also give you into their hand, and they shall throw down your shrines and break down your high places. They
shall also strip you of your clothes, take your beautiful jewelry, and leave you naked and bare.)

17:17 “For God has put it into their hearts to fulfill His purpose, to be of one mind, and to give their
kingdom to the beast, until the words of God are fulfilled.

Purpose – mind (NAS)
One mind – common purpose – even to do one mind and to give (NAS)

References: 2 Thessalonians 2:11 (And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie); Revelation 10:7; 2;
17:13; 2 Corinthians 8:16 (But thanks be to God, who puts the same earnestness on your behalf in the heart of Titus)

17:18 “And the woman whom you saw is that great city which reigns over the kings of the earth.”

The powerful influence which God hereby showed this beast had over the minds of great men. It was of God, and to

fulfill His will, that these kings agreed to give their kingdom to the beast. (MH)

Reigns – has a kingdom (NAS)

References: Revelation 11:8; 12:4; 16:19