4 And the woman was clothed in purple and bright red, with ornaments of gold and stones of great price and jewels; and in her hand was a gold cup full of evil things and her unclean desires;
Saying, Sorrow, sorrow for the great town, she who was clothed in delicate linen, and purple, and red; with ornaments of gold and stones of great price and jewels!
Babylon has been a gold cup in the hand of the Lord, which has made all the earth overcome with wine: the nations have taken of her wine, and for this cause the nations have gone off their heads.
But in place of this he will give honour to the god of armed places, and to a god of whom his fathers had no knowledge he will give honour with gold and silver and jewels and things to be desired.
And I will put clean water on you so that you may be clean: from all your unclean ways and from all your images I will make you clean.
Give to her as she gave, even an increased reward for her works; in the cup which was mixed by her, let there be mixed as much again for herself. As she gave glory to herself, and became more evil in her ways, in the same measure give her pain and weeping: for she says in her heart, I am seated here a queen, and am no widow, and will in no way see sorrow.
And a second angel came after, saying, Destruction has come to Babylon the great, which gave to all the nations the wine of the wrath of her evil ways.
Give no belief to false words: because there will first be a falling away from the faith, and the revelation of the man of sin, the son of destruction, Who puts himself against all authority, lifting himself up over all which is named God or is given worship; so that he takes his seat in the Temple of God, putting himself forward as God. Have you no memory of what I said when I was with you, giving you word of these things? And now it is clear to you what is keeping back his revelation till the time comes for him to be seen. For the secret of evil is even now at work: but there is one who is keeping back the evil till he is taken out of the way. And then will come the revelation of that evil one, whom the Lord Jesus will put to death with the breath of his mouth, and give to destruction by the revelation of his coming; Even the one whose coming is marked by the working of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, And with every deceit of wrongdoing among those whose fate is destruction; because they were quite without that love of the true faith by which they might have salvation.
I made discovery of Israel as of grapes in the waste land; I saw your fathers as the first-fruits of the fig-tree in her early fruit time; but they came to Baal-peor, and made themselves holy to the thing of shame, and became disgusting like that to which they gave their love.
And you have seen their disgusting doings, and the images of wood and stone and silver and gold which were among them:)
And I will put her on the coals so that she may be heated and her brass burned, so that what is unclean in her may become soft and her waste be completely taken away.
For this cause say to the children of Israel, This is what the Lord has said: Are you making yourselves unclean as your fathers did? are you being untrue to me by going after their disgusting works?
He who puts an ox to death puts a man to death; he who makes an offering of a lamb puts a dog to death; he who makes a meal offering makes an offering of pig's blood; he who makes an offering of perfumes for a sign gives worship to an image: as they have gone after their desires, and their soul takes pleasure in their disgusting things;
Which you gave to your servants the prophets, saying, The land into which you are going, to take it for a heritage, is an unclean land, because of the evil lives of the peoples of the land and their disgusting ways, which have made the land unclean from end to end.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Revelation 17
Commentary on Revelation 17 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 17
This chapter contains another representation of those things that had been revealed before concerning the wickedness and ruin of antichrist. This antichrist had been before represented as a beast, and is now described as a great whore. And here,
Rev 17:1-6
Here we have a new vision, not as to the matter of it, for that is contemporary with what came under the three last vials; but as to the manner of description, etc. Observe,
Rev 17:7-13
Here we have the mystery of this vision explained. The apostle wonders at the sight of this woman: the angel undertakes to open this vision to him, it being the key of the former visions; and he tells the apostle what was meant by the beast on which the woman sat; but it is so explained as still to need further explanation.
Rev 17:14-18
Here we have some account of the downfall of Babylon, to be more fully described in the following chapter.