Days of Vengeance - The Preterist Archive

17:1-2
you the mystery of the Woman and of the Beast that
carries her, which has the seven heads and the ten horns.
1-2 The vision of the Seven Chalices continues: One
of the seven angels who had the Seven Chalices shows
St. John the fall of the Great Harlot who sits on many
waters. St. John’s readers have already been told of a
Harlot-City named “Babylon the Great” (14:8; 16:19),
and the Harlot’s resemblance to the original Babylon is
underscored by the information that she sits on many
waters, an image taken from Jeremiah’s description of
Babylon in his famous oracle of judgment against her
(Jer. 50-51). The expression many waters of Jeremiah
51:13 refers both to the Euphrates, which ran through
the middle of the city, and to the canals surrounding it.
Ultimately, it refers to the blessings which God had
bestowed on Babylon, and which she prostituted for her
own glory. Thus St. John describes the Great Harlot of
his day in terms of her prototype and model. Later, in
17:15, we are informed of one aspect of the symbolic
meaning of the “many waters,” but for now the point is
merely the identification of the Harlot with Babylon.
At the same time, however, we must recognize that at
every other point in Revelation where the expression
many waters is used, it is set within a description of
God’s covenantal relationship and liturgical
interaction with His people. We have noted that the
Voice from the Glory-Cloud sounds like many waters,
and that this Voice is produced by the innumerable
angels in the heavenly council (Ezek. 1:24). Similarly,
in Revelation 1:15 Christ’s Voice is “like the sound of
many waters” (cf. Ezek. 43:2); in 14:2 St. John again
hears the Voice from heaven as “the sound of many
waters”; and in 19:6 the great multitude of the
redeemed, having entered the angelic council in
heaven, joins in a song of praise, which St. John hears
as “the sound of many waters.” The expression is thus
reminiscent of both God’s gracious revelation and His
people’s liturgical response of praise and obedience.
Given the Biblical background and context of the
phrase, it would come as no surprise to St. John’s
readers that the Woman should be seen seated on
“many waters.” The surprise is that she is a whore. She
has taken God’s good gifts and prostituted them (Ezek.
16:6-16; Rom. 2:17-24).
The Harlot-City has committed fornication with the
kings of the earth. This expression is taken from
Isaiah’s prophecy against Tyre, where it primarily refers
to her international commerce (Isa. 23: 15-17);
Nineveh as well is accused of “many harlotries” with
other nations (Nahum 3:4). 2 Most often, however, the
image of a city or nation playing the harlot with the
kingdoms of the world is used in reference to the
rebellious Covenant people. Speaking against apostate
Jerusalem, Isaiah mourned:
How the faithful City has become a Harlot,
She who was once full of justice!
Righteousness once lodged in her,
But now murderers. (Isa. 1:21)
The imagery of Israel’s adultery is fairly common in the
prophets, as they bring God’s Covenant Lawsuit against
the Bride who has abandoned her Husband. 3 Jeremiah
spoke against Israel as the Harlot, seeking after the false
gods of the heathen in place of her true Husband:
For long ago I broke your yoke
And tore off your bonds;
But you said, “I will not serve!”
For on every high hill
And under every green tree
You have lain down as a harlot. . . .
You are a swift young camel entangling her ways,
A wild donkey accustomed to the wilderness,
That sniffs the wind in her passion.
In the time of her heat who can turn her away?
All who seek her will not become weary;
In her month they will find her. . . .
Your sword has devoured your prophets
Like a destroying lion.
O generation, hear the Word of the LORD.
Have I been a wilderness to Israel,
Or a land of thick darkness?
Why do My people say, “We are free to roam;
We will come no more to Thee”?
Can a virgin forget her ornaments,
Or a Bride her attire?
Yet My people have forgotten Me
Days without number.
How well you prepare your way
To seek love!
Therefore even the wicked women
You have taught your ways. . . .
God says, If a husband divorces his wife,
And she goes from him
And belongs to another man,
Will he still return to her?
Will not that land be completely polluted?
But you are a harlot with many lovers;
Yet you turn to Me, declares the LORD.
Lift up your eyes to the bare heights and see;
Where have you not been violated?
By the roads you have sat for them
Like an Arab in the desert,
And you have polluted a land
With your harlotry and with your wickedness.
Therefore the showers have been withheld,
And there has been no spring rain.
Yet you had a harlot’s forehead;
You refused to be ashamed. (Jer. 2:20-24, 30-33; 3:1-3)
Israel’s adulteries, Hosea said, took place “on every
threshing floor” (Hos. 9:1): The picture is that of a
woman prostituting herself for money in the grain
house in harvest-time. This carries a double meaning.
First, Israel was apostatizing into Baal-worship, seeking
harvest blessing and fertility from false gods (forgetting
that fertility, and blessing in every area, can come only
from the one true God). Second, the Temple was built
on a threshing floor (2 Chron. 3:1), symbolizing God’s
2. It is noteworthy that Tyre and Nineveh – the only two cities outside of Israel that are accused of harlotry – had both been in covenant with God. The kingdom
of Tyre in David and Solomon’s time was converted to the worship of the true God, and her king contracted a covenant with Solomon and assisted in the building
of the Temple (1 Kings 5:1-12; 9:13; Amos 1:9); Nineveh was converted under the ministry of Jonah (Jon. 3:5-10). The later apostasy of these two cities could
rightly be considered harlotry.
3. For a brief survey of the harlot motif in Scripture, see Francis Schaeffer’s excellent little book The Church Before the Watching World (Downers Grove, IL:
InterVarsity Press, 1971), Chapter 2: “Adultery and Apostasy – The Bride and the Bridegroom Theme.”
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