Revelation 17 YLT
Summary: One of the bowl angels shows John "Babylon the great," pictured as a woman dressed in purple and scarlet, adorned with jewels and holding a golden cup full of abominations, seated on a scarlet beast with seven heads and ten horns, drunk with the blood of the saints and martyrs of Jesus. The angel explains the symbolism: the seven heads represent seven mountains and also kings, the beast that was, is not, and is to come embodies opposition to God, and the ten horns are kings who will give their power to the beast and make war on the Lamb, who will conquer them since he is "Lord of lords and King of kings" (v. 14). The chapter closes describing the ten horns and the beast turning against the woman herself, hating and destroying the prostitute, since God has put it into their hearts to carry out his purpose, and identifies the woman as "the great city that has dominion over the kings of the earth" (v. 18).
1And there came one of the seven messengers, who were having the seven vials, and he spake with me, saying to me, `Come, I will shew to thee the judgment of the great whore, who is sitting upon the many waters,
2with whom the kings of the earth did commit whoredom; and made drunk from the wine of her whoredom were those inhabiting the earth;'
3and he carried me away to a wilderness in the Spirit, and I saw a woman sitting upon a scarlet-coloured beast, full of names of evil-speaking, having seven heads and ten horns,
4and the woman was arrayed with purple and scarlet-colour, and gilded with gold, and precious stone, and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and uncleanness of her whoredom,
5and upon her forehead was a name written: `Secret, Babylon the Great, the Mother of the Whores, and the Abominations of the earth.'
6And I saw the woman drunken from the blood of the saints, and from the blood of the witnesses of Jesus, and I did wonder--having seen her--with great wonder;
7and the messenger said to me, `Wherefore didst thou wonder? I--I will tell thee the secret of the woman and of the beast that is carrying her, which hath the seven heads and the ten horns.
8`The beast that thou didst see: it was, and it is not; and it is about to come up out of the abyss, and to go away to destruction, and wonder shall those dwelling upon the earth, whose names have not been written upon the scroll of the life from the foundation of the world, beholding the beast that was, and is not, although it is.
9`Here is the mind that is having wisdom; the seven heads are seven mountains, upon which the woman doth sit,
10and there are seven kings, the five did fall, and the one is, the other did not yet come, and when he may come, it behoveth him to remain a little time;
11and the beast that was, and is not, he also is eighth, and out of the seven he is, and to destruction he doth go away.
12`And the ten horns that thou sawest, are ten kings, who a kingdom did not yet receive, but authority as kings the same hour do receive with the beast,
13these have one mind, and their own power and authority to the beast they shall give over;
14these with the Lamb shall make war, and the Lamb shall overcome them, because Lord of lords he is, and King of kings, and those with him are called, and choice, and stedfast.'
15And he saith to me, `The waters that thou didst see, where the whore doth sit, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues;'
16and the ten horns that thou didst see upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and shall burn her in fire,
17for God did give into their hearts to do its mind, and to make one mind, and to give their kingdom to the beast till the sayings of God may be complete,
18and the woman that thou didst see is the great city that is having reign over the kings of the land.'
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