Revelation 17 & 18

These chapters of Revelation describe the end time kingdom of the antichrist and its origins. Similar to Daniel 2, but with a different focus and further look back at history. It also ties in with other visions and prophecies in Daniel 7, and Daniel 11 to reveal greater detail about these strange symbols of Revelation and their connection to Israel, Jerusalem, the Dragon and how the Dragon’s kingdom will come about. While focused on the fourth kingdom of the man of sin, it is also focused on this adulterous woman with whom the world is fornicating and reveals, through the image of this whore riding a scarlet beast, a strong connection to Jerusalem.

I’ve excerpted Revelation 17-18 below without verses as it was originally. If you would like to read it with verse numbers and inline Hebrew definitions, read it at Blue Letter Bible.

The Whore Riding the Beast

Revelation 13 spoke to the beast from the sea to whom the dragon gave power and great authority to. This beast who had a mortal headwound healed, and his dragon, were worshipped by the whole world. All through the Old Testament, the breaking of the first commandment of the Mosaic Covenant to which Israel and God agreed at Mount Sinai was referred to as adultery. Likewise fornication would be interpreted as worship of other gods.

The symbolic union in marriage through a covenant was used constantly between God and Israel in the Old Covenant/Testament, and Israel constantly broke that covenant by going after other gods and turning away from the God that saved them out of Egypt. So too I believe we will see that this whore riding the beast is representative of the natural branches of Israel broken off in unbelief. Romans 11 This woman is pictured as the center of global worship of another god beside the One True God. This beast, which will be shown later, is tied to names of blasphemy with seven heads and ten horns.

The woman is arrayed in purple and scarlet and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls. Chris White, in his books False Christ and Mystery Babylon, goes into some detail about the significance of these things.

Mystery Babylon by Chris White

This particular phrase: “purple and scarlet,” occurs twenty-nine times in the Old Testament, all of them in the book of Exodus; the only other time it occurs is here in Revelation. The entire Old Testament phrase is something like: “blue, purple, scarlet and fine twisted linen.” But, here in Revelation we have a notable lack of the color blue. We will talk about this omission in detail later.

An example of its usage is in Exodus 26:1:

“Moreover thou shalt make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet: with cherubims of cunning work shalt thou make them.”

These curtains of the temple were by no means the only things that were supposed to consist of blue, purple, scarlet, and fine linen. The same phrase was used in relation to the following items:

The curtains of the tabernacle
The veil of the temple
The hanging for the door of the tent with lampstands
The hanging for the gate of the court
Certain offerings
Cloths of service
The girdle of the high priest
The ephod of the high priest
The breastplate of the high priest
The stitched pomegranates on the high priest’s garments

Almost everything in the service of the temple that was made from cloth was to be made out of these colors.

As we progress, what will be of particular interest to us is the relationship between the clothes of Mystery Babylon and the clothes of the high priest.

Notice, though, there is a difference between what was said of the clothing of Mystery Babylon (“…and the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour…“) and the clothing of the high priest and the various items associated with temple worship (“…blue, purple, scarlet and fine twined linen…).”

At first, it would seem that fine linen is not mentioned in relationship to Mystery Babylon either, but in a later verse (Rev 18:16) it actually does mention “fine linen” as well.

“And saying, ‘Alas, alas, that great city, that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls!’ – Rev 18:16

So the main difference between the clothing of Mystery Babylon and the clothing of the high priest is the color blue. This could be due to the significance that the Bible put on the color blue in relation to its symbolism of being in a right standing with God and His commandments as well as it being a symbol of their not “whoring” any more:

“Speak unto the children of Israel, and bid them that they make them fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put upon the fringe of the borders a ribband of blue: And it shall be unto you for a fringe, that ye may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the LORD, and do them; and that ye seek not after your own heart and your own eyes, after which ye use to go a whoring: That ye may remember, and do all my commandments, and be holy unto your God.” - Num 15:38-40

The Ark of the Covenant in the Tabernacle was also covered with blue cloth (Numbers 4:5-7; 11-13), and the robe of the High Priest was also blue.

I am suggesting that she is wearing the clothing of a harlot high priest who is promoting the worship, not of the true God in temple service, but of the antichrist, who also will make use of the temple.

This interpretation is greatly strengthened when we get to the next verse, which is about the name on the woman’s forehead. We will see the connection to the high priest and the name that was on his forehead. But for now let’s continue on with the present verse.

“…decked with gold and precious stones and pearls”

Decked is really the key word here. It is a different Greek word than the word “arrayed” earlier in the verse. The word “decked” has to do with jewels. One definition says that it means: “to bring an ornament upon.” Decked is not a very common word in the Old Testament. In fact, it is only used 10 times, and it has very provocative uses.

The overall picture of its use in the Old Testament is God saying that He decked Jerusalem with precious jewels when she was in her youth; but as she began to commit adultery by the worship of pagan gods, she then begins to “deck” herself in a different manner.

For example, here in the first part of Ezekiel 16, we see how God decked her in her proverbial youth:

“’I decked thee also with ornaments, and I put bracelets upon thy hands, and a chain on thy neck. And I put a jewel on thy forehead, and earrings in thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon thine head. Thus wast thou decked with gold and silver; and thy raiment was of fine linen, and silk, and broidered work; thou didst eat fine flour, and honey, and oil: and thou wast exceeding beautiful, and thou didst prosper into a kingdom. And thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty: for it was perfect through my comeliness, which I had put upon thee’, saith the Lord GOD. ‘But thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy renown, and pouredst out thy fornications on every one that passed by; his it was.’” - Eze 16:11-15

Then later, when Jerusalem becomes a prostitute, she decks herself a different way:

“And furthermore, that ye have sent for men to come from far, unto whom a messenger was sent; and, lo, they came: for whom thou didst wash thyself, paintedst thy eyes, and deckedst thyself with ornaments.” - Eze 23:40

And in Hosea 2:13:

“’And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim, wherein she burned incense to them, and she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and she went after her lovers, and forgat me,’ saith the LORD.” – Hos 2:13

But one of the most provocative uses of the word “decked” in relation to our verse in Revelation 17:4 is found in Jeremiah 4:29-30 while speaking of the city of Jerusalem. It says:

“Though thou clothest thyself with crimson, though thou deckest thee with ornaments of gold, though thou rentest thy face with painting, in vain shalt thou make thyself fair; thy lovers will despise thee, they will seek thy life.” – Jer 4:30

The connections to Mystery Babylon here should be quite obvious. It is also interesting to note that in this passage Jerusalem’s lover was prophesied to despise her and take her life. This is exactly what the beast which she calls her husband does; he turns on her and attacks the city.

One interesting thing in this verse is the mention of pearls. I found this reference somewhat curious, as there is only one mention of pearls in the OT. In fact, there are only eight references in the entire Bible, and half of those are in the book of Revelation. Three of the other references are using pearls as an example of something valuable, like “the pearl of great price” or “don’t throw your pearls before swine.” The only pearl reference left is also one that I think is applicable to this verse. It is found in 1 Timothy 2:9:

“In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array…” – 1Tim 2:9

Here, being decked with pearls is used as the opposite of modest clothing. That would seem to fit the description of Mystery Babylon, but there may be yet more significance to it that I am not aware of.

False Christ by Chris White

The first items mentioned are “gold and silver, precious stones.” The only other place this exact phrase is used is in describing the specific offerings needed to worship the Antichrist’s god in Daniel 11: “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” (Daniel 11:38, emphasis added).

This can’t be a coincidence. We also know that the place where the Antichrist demands worship of both himself and the image of the beast is in the temple in Jerusalem. Therefore, we can easily conclude that the items needed to be brought by the people of the world to worship the image of the beast in Jerusalem are gold, silver and precious stones.

So, consider that the Antichrist has demanded worship, and the way he says to worship is by offering gold, silver, and precious stones. Can you even imagine what that would do to the cost of these items in the global economy? If you thought the money changers and the people selling birds for sacrifice in the temple were bad, wait until they sell gold, silver, and precious stones to the pilgrims. Like I said, this will make the merchants richer than anyone ever has been.

The Whore and Great Tribulation

In addition to the theme of the fornication between the nations and the whore, another element comes into play, the wrath of her fornication and the association of wine. Wine is made by crushing the grapes, and it is this same symbology that God uses when speaking of His wrath.

In Revelation 12, we see Michael and his angels cast the dragon to the earth and knowing he has a short time, goes after Israel in Judea. This is phase one of the dragon’s wrath, the unparalleled time of Jacob’s trouble that is cut short. Once she is protected from the dragon, he goes after the remnant of her seed and those holding the testimony of Christ. This is phase 2 of the dragon’s wrath and all those that worship the beast and take his mark, will participate in the persecution of the saints around the world. This is the great tribulation that comes after the revealing of the man of sin at the abomination of desolation.

And so the wine of the wrath of her fornication that she and the world are drunk off of is the blood of the saints and their participation in the worship of the dragon and the beast and the resulting persecution that flows from that dragon’s hatred of God’s people.

The Woman: The Great City

We’ve seen how this whore was arrayed, the world commits fornication with her, and that fornication is tied to dragon’s wrath and the blood of the saints. The final piece that defines this woman riding the beast comes in her definition as that great city that rules over the kings of the earth, the center of power of the kingdom of the dragon and his man of sin and false prophet.

This woman is identified with a great city and nicknamed mystery Babylon, but John also calls this great city spiritually Sodom, Egypt, and where Yeshua was crucified. It is Jerusalem that kills all the prophets and stones those who are sent to her and Yeshua made a point of returning there to fulfill God’s plan of redemption from Jerusalem so that it would be in Jerusalem that His blood was spilled for all mankind. Therefore, mystery Babylon is none other than Jerusalem.

However, I think it should be more specifically defined in the context of the kingdom of the dragon and his man of sin as the culmination of all spiritual wickedness and idolatry, where the anticrist has ensconsed himself as an idol above all gods to be worshipped. All the world whose names are not written in the book of life will bow the knee and worship him and in so doing, give up their immortal birthright for temporal reprieve from persecution and death. This is the hour of temptation under global rule of the dragon.

Judgement of Babylon (Jerusalem)

Chapter 17 and 18 are all about the judgment of the great whore that sits upon many waters. As we will see we get a lot of great insight about the kingdom of the antichrist from these chapters as well, but the focus is on the judgment of Jersualem and her inhabitants. At the time her judgment comes, almost 3½ years after the abomination of desolation, it’s hard to believe anyone not part of the beast’s kingdom would remain there, but a warning is given before the destruction.

Her judgment comes quickly through the ten horns, which will be covered below. While chapter 17 is focused on identification of Jerusalem as the woman, chapter 18 is focused on her judgement. Her repayment for the wine of her wrath is double on her, and her destruction comes quickly and decisively.

The statement that she says in her heart that she is a queen, not a widow, and will see no sorrow may hearken back to the idea of the Mosaic Covenant and the death of the One who made that covenant with her. Israel was divorced from God, Isaiah 50:1, but when Yeshua died on the cross, Israel became a widow, free to marry another.

The question is, does the harlot even recognize the death of the one to whom she was bound by law, does she consider herself to be a widow? Or has she chosen her become drunk in her power and fornication believing it will never end, deceived that the false messiah she accepted is the promised Messiah and that this false messiah’s kindgom will last forever. Little do they understand how greatly the were deceived and in her pride, her destruction will come in one day.

Several groups of people stand back from Jerusalem and bewail the smoke of her destruction. The kings of the earth that committed fornication with her, the merchants who have nobody to buy their merchandise from them, and all the shipmasters and sailors likewise lament her destruction for their loss of wealth in her destruction.

We don’t specifically know how Jerusalem is destroyed aside from by fire, but just before her final destruction the seventh bowl of God’s wrath is poured out and causes some great destruction, followed closely after by her final destruction.

So it seems that it is the ten horns that ultimately destroy Jerusalem. As we will see, this destruction seems at odds with the fact that Jerusalem is the seat of the dragon and his man of sin, and it is they who give the ten kings their kingdom. So why would they hate Jerusalem so, perhaps there’s a little trouble in paradise. Perhaps these ten kings only gave their power and kingdoms to the beast because God put it in their hearts to fulfill His will, and now with the wrath of God poured out, His will is finished and the ten kings now act of their own accord, having hated the woman but powerless to do anything about it.

There is an interesting possible connection of the rise of the fourth kingdom, the ten horns, and the woman and the political nature of that rise that may explain this. In the paradigm of the Jewish antichrist, are there any political alliances that may come about between Israel and nine other regional nations that could explain this hatred of Jersualem and the seat of the antichrist? Could it be that unexpected political alliances only come about miraculously because God has put it in their hearts to allow it to be?

The Scarlet Beast

The Seven Heads

Here we see the same seven head and ten horn symbology defining this beast that is seen in Daniel 7, Revelation 12, Revelation 13 and here in chapter 17. The combination of these chapters is put together in the study on the Fourth Kingdom. Focusing on just what this chapter provides, we have the symbology of the seven heads interpreted for us in two ways, which are the key to understanding that these seven heads represent.

Seven Mountains

The seven heads are interpreted as “seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.” As we have already identified the woman as Jerusalem. A mountain represents the kingdom of God in Daniel 2 when the rock cut without hands grows into a mountain that covers the whole earth. We also know that Jerusalem is called God’s holy mountain.

With Jerusalem tied to God’s holy mountain we can see that these seven mountains are Mount Zion upon which Jerusalem sits, in alignment with the symbolic description of the harlot sitting on both the scarlet colored beast that carries her and its seven heads. This is a spacial definition of a location on the earth on which the harlot sits.

Seven Kings

In addtion the seven heads are interpreted to be “seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, [and] the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.” John, receiving this vision in the first century AD, provides a temporal description of these heads also interpreted as seven mountains. The sixth head, or king representing a kingdom, in a line of seven is present in John’s day. Five previous to that are fallen and one future seventh to that is yet to come from John’s perspective.

I say it is a king representing a kingdom due to the fact that throughout history looking at these times and other symbolic prophecies, we see these symbols speaking of Egypt, Syria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome often times existing over longer periods than the reign of one individual king. So I believe it merits recognizing that while they are kings, kings represent reign and control over their kingdom even though that control may be passed to others over time. There may be some cases, however, where one king takes the forefront in recognizing the timing of that control over Jerusalem.

The spacial and temporal connection brought together provide the interpretation that the seven heads of the dragon in Revelation 12 or the beast in Revelation 13 and Revelation 17 are representative of kings representing kingdoms controlling Jerusalem through history in the influence of the dragon. More generally, since kings can come and go within a kingdom, I wouldn’t be opposed to this representing kingdoms. That the harlot is seen sitting on these seven mountains indicates that this adultery and harlotry tied to Jerusalem is also spacial and historic in nature.

So the spiritual harlotry of the woman through history is sitting atop the kings ruling over Jerusalem through history. It may be that these are tied together since it is usually Israel’s turning away from God that causes His protection of them to cease and results in Jerusalem being captured. In this way generally the religious leadership of Israel at the time that foreign nations are controlling Jerusalem would likely be idolotrous.

This is different from Daniel 7, which shows the fourth kingdom (lacking the seven heads symbolism) with the ten horns vs. John’s visions where there is a seven-headed beast with ten horns. Daniel’s vision consists of four contemporaneous symbols of kingdoms prior to their joining, one of which has ten horns. The seven headed beast is the time after power has been consolidated under the dragon and his man of sin. The connection comes in the depiction of the seven headed beast being comprised of the same animal symbols in Revelation 13 that Daniel describes in the four kingdoms at the end.

As far as who the historical kingdoms are, I will go over the various interpretations on the study of the fourth kingdom, but it would seem we at least know in John’s time it would represent the kingdom exerting political control over Jerusalem at the time, Rome. The apostate spiritual and religious leadership of the Scribes, Pharisees and Sadducees of the time that Yeshua railed against and warned about. It was these who brought about the crucifixion of the Messiah, the greatest prophet and Son of God, and it was Rome that carried it out.

Eighth Head of the Seven

This chapter also brings back the idea from Revelation 13 of a mortal wound being healed and a resurrection. It is one of the things that causes the world to wonder at the beast.

With the context of the kings or kingdoms ruling over Jerusalem through history, we are additionally shown in the interpretation of these seven heads that the beast that is killed and resurrected is the eighth head of the seven heads. This means that the seventh head, which must continue a short space, is a picture of the king or kingdom over Jerusalem before the abomination of desolation when the man of sin is revealed. When that seventh king is killed the eighth king, the dragon-powered beast, becomes that last king ruling over Jerusalem during the kingdom of the antichrist and the harlot religious system will follow after this man of sin instead of God. In her zeal, she will participate in the killing of the saints that refuse to submit to this self-declared god who is given power by the dragon and deceives the whole world.

It’s interesting that the day of the Lord, the day of the wrath of God, is tied to the controversy or dispute of Zion, God’s holy hill. This whole idea of the woman (Jerusalem) sitting on Mount Zion representing adulterous Israel and the dragon’s seven heads the Gentile influence over her combined with the judgment of Bayblon filled up in the seventh bowl ties this all together.

God will judge Jerusalem, the seat of the dragon at the time, and cast her down utterly. It is from these ruins that the Messiah will raise up His new city and temple and rule undisputed from then on. Once the wrath of God has recompensed her, the dispute over Jerusalem will be over forever.

The Ten Horns

The full scope of what this means in relation to the other visions of Daniel and John will be covered in the study of the fourth kingdom. These verses provide some important insight though about these ten kings. They are said to not have a kingdom yet, but they have one mind and give their power and strength to the beast. In the interpretation however, we are told that they only do so because God has put it into their hearts to fulfill His will.

In reality these ten kings hate the woman, Jerusalem in the context of the eighth head’s kingdom. It is not until God’s will is fulfilled in the completion of His wrath with the final seventh bowl judgement that they seem to no longer agree to give their kingdom to the beast. It is then that they will make her desolate, naked, eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.

So these ten kings hate Jerusalem and in one hour destroy her. Being at the end just before Yeshua returns in glory to take the kingdoms and reign for 1,000 years, this is the last time the Jerusalem of history will exist. From the time of His return on, a new Messianic Kingdom temple, Ezekiel 40-48, will be built and there will no more be any harlotry in Jerusalem from that time forward.

Revelation 17-18: The Harlot in Jerusalem