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Revelation 17:2

in Revelation 17

The kings of the earth were immoral with her, and those who dwell on the earth were intoxicated with the wine of her immorality.”

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, and they that dwell in the earth were made drunken with the wine of her fornication.

KJV

With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.

This verse in Revelation 17

Commentary

10 notes on this verse

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

The woman (Re 12:1) is the congregation of God in its purity under the Old and New Testament, and appears again as the Bride of the Lamb, the transfigured Church prepared for the marriage feast. The woman, the invisible Church, is latent in the apostate Church, and is the Church militant; the Bride is the Church triumphant.

This site's exposition

the punishment of the great prostitute

on Revelation 17:1-2

One of the seven angels with the seven bowls shows John the great prostitute, whose sin is her immorality with the kings of the earth. The prophets used the same figure against Tyre and Israel. She stands opposite the woman of chapter 12 and the bride of chapter 19.

This site's exposition

The kings of the earth were immoral with her

One of the seven angels with the seven bowls says Come, I will show you, here and again at 21:9. Here he shows John the prostitute and there the bride, so the two women stand as opposites.

The record, by era

The Church Fathers2 voices

A commentator

Oecumenius

Commentary on Revelation · Written before 550.

proposed

With them he says "the kings of the earth committed fornication." And these are the ones who reigned over them; for these are the kings of the earth who have shared in her fornication and idolatry. "And", he says, "the inhabitants of the earth were …

A commentator

Primasius of Hadrumetum

COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE 17:1 · Written before 560.

proposed

Isaiah speaks of the devil in a similar manner when he foretells the fall [of the devil] under the figure of the leader of Babylon. "How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, who has risen in the morning." Speaking of the body of all …

The Medieval Church2 voices

A commentator

Andreas of Caesarea

COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE 17:1-3 · Written before 614.

proposed

Some consider this harlot to be old Rome, since she sits on seven hills, and the seven heads of the beast that carries [the harlot] to be the more ungodly kings from Domitian to Diocletian who persecuted the church. However, we are guided as much …

A commentator

Bede

Commentary on Revelation · Written before 735.

proposed

With whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, etc. The universality prevails over the parts. For the kings and inhabitants of the earth are each individually those arrogantly seeking earthly things, whom the allurements of the world, with the lust of vices, defile and …

The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice

With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication,....
2 more voices on this verse

The Nineteenth Century2 voices

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

proposed

With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication - What an awful picture this is of the state of the religion of the world in subjection to this whore! Kings have committed spiritual fornication with her, and their subjects have drunk deep, dreadfully deep, into the doctrine of her abominable errors.
With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication - Spiritual adultery. The meaning is, that papal Rome, unfaithful to God, and idolatrous and corrupt, had seduced the rulers of the earth, and led them into the same kind of unfaithfulness, idolatry, and corruption. Compare Jer 3:8-9; Jer 5:7; Jer 13:27; Jer 23:14; Eze 16:32; Eze 23:37; Heb 2:2; Heb 4:2. How true this is in history need not be stated. All the princes and kings of Europe in the dark ages, and for many centuries were, and not a few of them are now, entirely under the influence of papal Rome. And the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication - The alluring cup which, as an harlot, she had extended to them. See this image explained in the notes on Rev 14:8. There it is said that Babylon - referring to the same thing - had “made them drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication”; that is, of the cup that led to wrath or punishment. Here it is said that the harlot had made them “drunk with the wine of her fornication”; that is, they had been, as it were, intoxicated by the alluring cup held out to them. What could better describe the influence of Rome on the people of the world, in making them, under these delusions, incapable of sober judgment, and in completely fascinating and controlling all their powers?

The words behind it

19 Greek words

Every Greek word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Revelation 18:23

    The light of a lamp will never shine in you again, and the voices of a bride and bridegroom will never call out in you again. For your merchants were the great ones of…

    it leads to

    • Revelation 18:3

      All the nations have drunk the wine of the passion of her immorality. The kings of the earth were immoral with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown wealthy from the extravagance…

      Reached by 3 separate paths from here.

    • Isaiah 23:8

      Who planned this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns, whose traders are princes, whose merchants are renowned on the earth?

    • Nahum 3:4

      because of the many harlotries of the harlot, the seductive mistress of sorcery, who betrays nations by her prostitution and clans by her witchcraft.

    • Jeremiah 7:34

      I will remove from the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem the sounds of joy and gladness and the voices of the bride and bridegroom, for the land will become a wasteland.”

    • Revelation 22:15

      But outside are the dogs, the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.

  • Through

    Revelation 18:3

    All the nations have drunk the wine of the passion of her immorality. The kings of the earth were immoral with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown wealthy from the extravagance…

    it leads to

    • Revelation 14:8

      Then a second angel followed, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, who has made all the nations drink the wine of the passion of her immorality.”

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

  • Through

    Revelation 18:9

    Then the kings of the earth who committed sexual immorality and lived in luxury with her will weep and wail at the sight of the smoke rising from the fire that consumes her.

    it leads to

    • Revelation 19:3

      And a second time they called out: “Hallelujah! Her smoke rises forever and ever.”

  • Through

    Revelation 14:8

    Then a second angel followed, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, who has made all the nations drink the wine of the passion of her immorality.”

    it leads to

    • Jeremiah 51:7–8

      Babylon was a gold cup in the hand of the LORD, making the whole earth drunk. The nations drank her wine; therefore the nations have gone mad.

Where this verse is studied

About Revelation

The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, Jan and Hubert van Eyck, about 1430 to 1432. Public domain.
The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, Jan and Hubert van Eyck, about 1430 to 1432. Public domain.
This page draws on 10 works. Open the list of works

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Andreas of Caesarea, COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE 17:1-3; Bede, Commentary on Revelation; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Oecumenius, Commentary on Revelation and Primasius of Hadrumetum, COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE 17:1.