Add parallel Print Page Options

The great prostitute

17 One of the seven angels that had the seven bowls came to me. ‘Come with me,’ he said. ‘I will show you how God will punish the great prostitute.[a] She sits at a place where there are many rivers.[b] It is like the kings who rule on the earth have had sex with that bad woman. She has led the people who live on the earth to do bad things. They have become drunk from the strong wine that she has given to them.’[c]

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 17:1 The great prostitute is like a picture of the bad city of Babylon. See Revelation 14:8; 16:19; 17:5; 18:1-24.
  2. 17:1 Many years ago, Babylon city was in a place where many rivers came together. Verse 15 of this chapter explains what these rivers mean.
  3. 17:2 The Bible tells us many times about people who have sex in a wrong way. In the Bible, this idea is often used as a picture of people who turn away from God. It means that people were worshipping idols instead of the true God. If they chose to worship other gods, they were like a bad wife who had gone away from her husband. The people in Babylon worshipped many false gods.