The Woman on the Beast
One of the angels carrying the bowls invites John to witness the judgment of the great prostitute who sits on many waters. Her influence reaches kings and peoples alike: the rulers of the earth commit immorality with her, and those who dwell on the earth are made drunk with the wine of her immorality. The paragraph establishes Babylon not as a private sinner but as a vast, corrupting force that shapes the whole world.
T1hen one of the seven angels with the seven bowls came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the punishment of the great prostitute, who sits on many waters. 2The kings of the earth were immoral with her, and those who dwell on the earth were intoxicated with the wine of her immorality.”
Carried into a wilderness, John sees the woman sitting on a scarlet beast covered with blasphemous names and marked by seven heads and ten horns. She is dressed in purple and scarlet, adorned with wealth, and holds a golden cup full of abominations and impurity. On her forehead is written the mysterious title identifying her as Babylon the Great, mother of prostitutes and of the earth's abominations. The paragraph exposes the union of seductive luxury, blasphemous power, and public wickedness.
3And the angel carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness, where I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns. 4The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls. She held in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality. 5And on her forehead a mysterious name was written: