The Harlot and the Beast she Rides
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Rev. 17: 1-2 
And one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke to me, saying: 
Come here, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters”,

with whom the kings of the earth committed acts of immorality, and those who dwell on the earth were made drunk with the wine of her immorality.
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Read it carefully. John is not seeing a woman sitting on water at the opening of Chap 17. The angel is only making reference to a woman on water that John saw eariler, in his visions!
At this point he is now going to see the judgement that will come upon that women he saw on the water at some point in the vision.

When did John actually SEE a woman sitting on many waters?
The only woman John "SAW" flooded with water was in chapter 12 and she was Israel. Satan poured a flood out of his mouth to try and wash the woman/Israel away.  She was surrounded by water.
 
 

Later in the description of the Harlot the angel says. "and the water that you saw is nations and peoples, and tongues."   So satan flooded Jerusalem with nations, and peoples, and tongues to try and destroy her.  Now John is going to be shown HER judgment.
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Rev. 17: 3: And he carried me away in the spirit into a wilderness; and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast full of blasphemous names, having seven heads and ten horns.
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Only one beast has seven heads and ten horns! So John is just being shown another symbolic picture of this same beast, most likely it is the "image of the first beast" of chapter 13.
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Rev. 17: 4-6
The woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a gold cup full of abominations and of the unclean things of her immorality, and on her forehead a name was written, a mystery, 
BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS
OF THE EARTH.
 And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood
of the witnesses of Jesus. When I saw her, I wondered greatly.
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Only one city can be the Mother of Harlots, and that is Jerusalem. She is the greatest of Harlots. The woman represents a great city; a city that became a harlot to the nations as Jerusalem/Israel did, many times over, with all these kingdoms that the seven heads represent.

It is a mystery, a riddle so to speak,  that her name is Babylon the great. This doesn't mean this woman actually represents the old city of Babylon.   Israel lived in exile in Babylon for 70 years. In Chapter 11, she is also called, mystically, "Egypt", a country where she was exiled to for almost 500 years. And also called "Sodom", a place of sin that came to destruction at the hand of the Lord for being a harlot. Jerusalem is a harlot because she was chosen by God to be His nation and spread His word to the ends of the earth, as a "Light shining" but instead she plays the harlot with the nations, not trusting in God.
 
 

Later John tells us the woman is also a city.
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17:18 And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth
over the kings of the earth.
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Rev 18:24 It is said of this Babylon:
"And in her was found the blood of the prophets and of the saints and of all who have been slain on the earth."

 
 
 
Also, in Matthew, Jesus tells of her responsibility in this:
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Matthew 23:34-38
Therefore, behold, I am sending you prophets and wise men and scribes;
some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city,  so that upon you may fall the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. 
Truly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. 
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. 
Behold, your house is being left to you desolate!
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She is drunk with the blood of saints and prophets. (Also Lk 11:47-51, Lk 13:34, Acts 7:52, 1 Thes 2:15, etc..)
 

Israel played the Harlot with Babylon, Media-Persia, and Greece. Israel sold herself to the world for profit rather than giving herself to God for gain, and so God gave her over to them.

The woman/harlot is a city that sits on the seven heads. The heads are mountains that are kings. So the mountains are symbolic of kingdoms. Israel plays the harlot for the kings of the earth of these kingdoms. The kingdoms of Babylon, Media-Persia, the four kingdoms of Greece, and finally the last kingdom, which make up the seven heads of the beast, which I spoke about in the previous chapters.

She is a spiritual whore (compare Isa 1:21, Jer 3:6-4, Exek 16, Ezek 23, Hos 2, Hos 9:1, . Click here for the verses).

The woman that John saw on the beast was the same woman he saw on the water. So she represents all Israel. Symbolism is very expressive, kind of like the old picture that says a thousand words.  She is Israel, and so is guilty of the death of all the prophets and saints. At the same time we are to see that she is a city.

She is Babylon, the Great City.

Jesus showed John about the great City many times before chapter seventeen:
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Rev 11:7 
And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that
ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.
:8 And their (two witnesses) dead bodies [shall lie] in the street of the great city,which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.
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Jerusalem is the Great City!
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Rev 14:8 
And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.
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We certainly see this happening today. The whole world has become involved with the Jerusalem because of the peace talks. As scripture says, Jerusalem is like a heavy stone around their neck.
 
During the pouring out of the 7th bowls of God's wrath, it says:
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In Rev 16:19 "And the great city was split into three parts and the city of the nations fell. Babylon the great was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of His fierce wrath."

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Rev 17:18 The woman whom you saw is the great city, which reigns over the kings of the earth.
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As of today NO ONE  person rules over the kings of the earth from any city in the world.  However in the last days it is said that the beast will rule over the kings of the earth from Jerusalem.  But this is another place that I would prefer to be reading this in Greek. I don't agree with the word "over"  being used here.  The word is "epi" meaning  upon, on, at, by, before, over.   It is used as the English words "on" or "upon"  350 times. It's primary use is "upon".   It is true that this great city reigns upon the kings/hills of the "ge" lands/earth.
 

She rides the beast of the last days revived Empire!

She is riding the IMAGE of the first beast.  Remember the First beast's body was made up of the animals (this was so we could identify the genealogy of the beast: the Islamic Empire before and after it fell, only to continue to live through the rule of the horns), now it is symbolised with the color of scarlet (red) representing the dark angel of destruction coming up out of the abyss that has taken control of this beast.   This is when it becomes the 8th head, a revivied empire. It is still the seventh come back for round two. A second atempt to rule the world.

 

It is when the horns give the their authority to the beast that the 8th head comes about.

 In this last day empire perhaps some type of possession will take place and he will lead the beast/Islam to try and destroy Israel.

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Rev. 17: 11
and the beast which was, and is not, is himself also an eighth (head) and is one of the seven (heads) and he goes to destruction.
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To better understand the power behind the beast the harlot rides when it becomes an Empire again under the 8th head, we need to look at his entrance of its spiritual leader into the world as the 5th trump is opened.  Ultimately Satan, through the dark angel from the bottomless pit called Abaddon and Apollyon, is in complete control of this final empire of Islam, through this beasts last head (the head with the ten horns, since we know from Daniel that this is the end days kingdom). A people primed and ready to go. A people already full of hate towards the Jewish people, and Christians, with their own anti-Christian and anti-Jewish religion. Think about what it could mean for Satan to actually give his throne over to someone, a Babylonian/Assyrian type empire! An Empire rising up from the same place as this old Empire. The 7th head with ten horns was Islam and it will come in that form again, but the angel over it will be the angel of destruction let out of the pit.

 

 

What is the goal of this final head on the beast? The same as it always has been for Satan, destruction.

We know from Daniel's visions that a last empire will rise up once again. They will come against Israel, bringing destruction, not only to Israel, but ultimately to the world through a last world war.

In Daniel 11:40 God tells what the antichrist will do in the last days.

God shows us in Daniel's vision of the King of the North, Chapter 11: 42: "Then he will stretch out his hand against other countries, and the land of Egypt will not escape."

Egypt has a non-Islamic government which is an insult to most Moslems. The fact that Egypt has been at peace with Israel for years is considered, to fanatical Moslems, to be traitorous.
 

From what I understand of the scriptures Iraq, as the leading nation of this revived Arab Empire of nations, will unite with Iran and Syria for the destruction of Israel. The lower states of the old USSR are not part of the ten horns, although they will join forces with them. The Iranian army will actually come onto Iraqi soil and join forces. Then they will cross into Syria and from there attack, as the king of the North, Israel's northern border. The PLO will be working from the inside, the West bank and the Gaza Strip. Jordan will remain neutral because of its peace agreement with Israel. But they will be supporting the Islamic beast in every way they can without breaking the agreement. They are called Ammon, Edom, and Moab in Daniel 11: 40-41. But Egypt has an agreement that says that she must fight with Israel against her sister Arab nations. This is her downfall. Because of this agreement Egypt (king of South) will collide with the king of the North. Iraq and her hoards will attack Egypt. Libya and Ethiopia will join the beast in this attack. The government of Egypt will be defeated.  I believe this is also the Gog wars spoken of in Eze 38.

 

 

This beast will have to conqure Egypt to re-unite the old empire in full force.
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Rev 17:12-13 
And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.
These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.
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These ten horns/kings/countries were part of an empire once, as we saw in Daniel, but in Revelation we see that the head died and yet was healed. So for a time they have no kingdom/empire but when they give their authority to the beast then they will have their empire, but only for a short time. During that hour, mystery Babylon (Israel) falls, burned with fire. But before all is lost Jesus returns to save the inhabitance of the city that are His.  All that see Him whom they peirced, and believe on Him are to run into the valley created in the Mount of Olives which splits north to south when His foot touches down.

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Rev 17:17 
For God hath put in their hearts to fulfill his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.
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