Greetings! Welcome to our third post in our study on the whore of Babylon series in Revelation chapter 17. In this post, we’re going to look at the other clues that confirm to us the identity of the whore of Babylon. We’ll look at why Jerusalem is being called the whore of Babylon, her clothing, the name the “great city,” and the mother of all harlots. There’s a lot of absorb, so let’s get going!

Chapter 17: The Whore of Babylon

Third in an Eight-Part Series
by Karen Thompson

The Vision of the Whore of Babylon Riding a Scarlet-Colored Beast

Rev. 17:1 And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: 2 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. 3 So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. 4 And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: 5 And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. 6 And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.

The Name “Babylon”

Now let’s talk about why Jerusalem is referred to as Babylon: “And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH” (Rev. 17:5). First of all, not only is Jerusalem called Babylon but she is also called Sodom and Egypt in Revelation chapter 11: “And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified” (v. 8). This verse refers to when the two witnesses are killed and their bodies left to rot in the streets. The city they are killed in is called two names: Sodom and Egypt. This doesn’t make sense because the two witnesses were not killed in two separate places; besides that, Sodom has not been in existence for thousands of years.

The obvious clue of the identity of the city is that the two witnesses were killed in the city “where also our Lord was crucified.” Our Lord Jesus was crucified in Jerusalem. Also, the ministry of the two witnesses will be in Jerusalem. So we can deduce that the city that is called “Sodom and Egypt” is Jerusalem. As verse eight says, the great city is called Sodom and Egypt because they are spiritual names and not the literal name of the city: “the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.”

This is not the first time Jerusalem was referred to as Sodom. In Isaiah chapter one, the prophet had a prophetic word for Judah and Jerusalem. In verse 10, Isaiah referred to Judah and Jerusalem as Sodom and Gomorrah: “Hear the word of the Lord ye rulers of Sodom; give ear to the law of our God ye people of Gomorrah.” The names Sodom and Gomorrah are spiritual names that symbolize certain carnal sins. Spiritual names are names that have a certain meaning attached to them. All cultures have people whose behavior has caused their names to become eponymous terms. As an example, if someone were to call you Benedict Arnold, you’ve just been called a traitor. If someone were to call you Attila the Hun or simply a Hun, you’ve just been called barbaric. If someone were to call you Pollyanna, you’ve just been called unrealistically optimistic. (Pollyanna is not a real person; she is a character in a movie.) In this same way, eponyms, or spiritual names, in the Bible are used to denote specific characteristics.

The conclusion is that if the names Sodom and Egypt are spiritual names for Jerusalem, then the name Babylon is also a spiritual name as well. Sodom and Egypt are names that reflect the carnal and worldly condition of Jerusalem. So what does the name Babylon symbolize? Historians point to the ancient city of Babylon as the primal source from which all systems of idolatry began. Hence, the name Babylon reflects the spiritual condition of apostasy and the worship of false gods. The whore of Babylon is a name that reflects Jerusalem’s falling away from God and worshiping false gods.

The Whore’s Clothing

Now let’s look at the clothing the woman is wearing. Verse four says, “And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls.” The woman is dressed in clothing that is both purple and scarlet, and she’s wearing jewelry made of gold, gem stones, and pearls. Then later in chapter 18, it says the city, not the woman, is “clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls” (Rev. 18:16). How can a city be dressed in clothes made of purple and scarlet colored fine linen, decked out with gold and gem stones? The answer is that these are the “clothes” and adornments of the sanctuary of the Lord!

In Exodus 25:8, the Lord told Moses to “make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.” The Lord then instructed Moses on how to make it. Exodus 26:1 says, “Moreover thou shalt make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet….” Like the temple tent, the woman wore fine linen in colors of purple and scarlet, and she was decked with gold jewelry. Everything in the sanctuary was made with gold or overlaid with gold, including the ark, the mercy seat, the cherubims, as well as the candlestick, the dishes, spoons, and most everything else.

The priest’s garments were also made of fine linen in the same colors as the temple curtains: blue, purple, and scarlet. The priest wore the “breastplate of judgment” which was also made of fine twined linen of blue, purple, and scarlet. Inset in the breastplate of judgment were four rows of three stones, totaling 12 stones. The stones were sardius, topaz, carbuncle, emerald, sapphire, diamond, ligure, agate, amethyst, beryl, onyx, and jasper. Each stone represented one of the twelve tribes of Israel (Exo. 28:15–21). The woman’s clothing and jewelry are identifying clues that confirms that Jerusalem is the whore of Babylon.

Note: The whore is wearing pearls but there are no pearls in either the breastplate of judgment or the temple. One reason for this seeming contradiction might be the fact that ancient Hebrew texts used names for the stones in the breastplate that are unidentifiable. Based on the ancient names, they didn’t know what the stones actually were. The only means they had to identify the stones was by the description of the stones.³ Basically, they used intelligent guessing to identify what the stones might be in the breastplate. So perhaps one of the stones was supposed to be a pearl but was misnamed something else. We do know, however, that new Jerusalem will have gates of pearl! 

The Great City

Another confirmation that the whore of Babylon is Jerusalem is the term “the great city.” This phrase is used ten times in the book of Revelation. Twice it is used in reference to Jerusalem. The first time we see it used is in Revelation 11:8 where it talks about the two witnesses being killed and their bodies were left in the streets of the “great city” which we’ve already determined to be Jerusalem. And it is used in reference to the new and holy Jerusalem that descends from heaven: “And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God…” (Rev. 21:10). All the other occurrences where “great city” is used are in association with the whore of Babylon. Since the term “great city” is used twice to describe Jerusalem, we can then make the leap in assuming the city that is called the whore of Babylon is Jerusalem.

The Title “Mother of Harlots”

Let’s look at the title that is written on the forehead of the woman: “Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth.” First of all, the word “mystery” is used 22 times in the New Testament. All 22 times, it is the translation of the Greek word musterion. It means something that is hidden or secret, something that is not obvious to the understanding, or something that is hidden from the ungodly but is revealed to the righteous.⁴

There are many mysteries in the Bible, but they are not to be mysteries to God’s children. God intends His children to know the mysteries of the Bible. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2:7 that “We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom….” He says this hidden wisdom was hidden to the princes of the world (v. 8). These hidden mysteries cannot be understood with our own natural understanding. They must be revealed to us by God. Paul said as much in verse 10: “But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit….” It is the Spirit of God who reveals to us the mystery of the whore.

The phrase “mother of harlots and abominations” should be obvious by now. As has already been discussed, the ungodly kings of Israel and Judah embraced the false gods of their neighbors which led the children of Israel into apostasy and idolatry. Israel’s ungodly kings embraced the abominable practices of these pagan religions. God outlined in His Word exactly what He considers to be an abomination. In Leviticus chapter 18, He made it clear that He did not want Israel to adopt the pagan practices of other nations. “And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, I am the Lord your God. After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do: and after the doings of the land of Canaan, whither I bring you, shall ye not do: neither shall ye walk in their ordinances. Ye shall do my judgments, and keep mine ordinances, to walk therein: I am the Lord your God” (Lev. 18:1–4). He then listed sexual practices that are an abomination to Him. He also condemned the practice of sacrificing your children in fire to a pagan God (vv. 21–23). Child sacrifice of any sort is an abomination to Him.

Deuteronomy chapter 18 lists more practices that He calls abominations: “When thou art come into the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations” (18:9). Listed again is sacrificing your children in fire. They were forbidden to use divination, or to consult an observer of times (astrology), enchanters or witches, or charmers, or a consulter with familiar spirits, wizards, or necromancers (vv. 9–11). Deuteronomy 29:16–17 also lists as abominations the worship of false gods made of wood, stone, gold, silver (idols) that the other nations worshiped. Many of the kings of Judah and Israel led the Israelites into the practice of all these abominations. Of all these kings, three in particular stand out as the ones most reprehensible when it comes to abominations.

The first is King Solomon. The wisest man in all the land failed to heed God’s warning not to marry foreign women lest they influence him so that he would turn away from God and go after their gods (1 Kings 11:2). He disobeyed God and married foreign women. In fact, he sort of turned it into a hobby. In the end, he had acquired 700 wives and 300 concubines. Just what God warned him would happen, happened: he began to worship foreign, false gods. 

The consequences were devastating. Because Solomon did not keep God’s covenant, God tore the kingdom away from him and gave it to one of Solomon’s servants. The Lord gave ten of the tribes to Solomon’s servant, Jeroboam, and Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, ended up ruling over the tribe of Judah, the Levites, and part of the tribe of Benjamin (which was a very small tribe) (1 Kings 11:11–13). Jerusalem was located in the portion of land the tribe of Benjamin had been allotted. (Jud. 1:21)

Another king that wrought great damage to Israel was King Ahab (874–853 BC). He reigned over the northern kingdom of Israel for 22 years, and he practiced more abominations than all the kings before him. He married Jezebel, the daughter of the king of Zidon, and began to worship their false god of Baal. “Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him” (1 Kings 16:33).

The king that became the “straw that broke the camel’s back” was King Manasseh (696–642 BC). It was Manasseh’s evil reign that ended God’s patience, resulting in Jerusalem being overtaken by the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar. What was tragic about Manasseh is that he was the son of King Hezekiah, one of Israel’s most godly kings. Manasseh embraced everything that God said was an abomination to Him. His father, Hezekiah, tore down all the altars and high places dedicated to foreign gods, but Manasseh rebuilt them. In fact, Manasseh surpassed King Ahab in wickedness. He sacrificed his own son in the fire to Molech, practiced soothsaying, used witchcraft, and consulted spiritists and mediums. (2 Kings 21:3–6)

When the king builds an altar to and worships foreign gods, the people of his land will follow him in the practice. When kings practice vile things like sacrificing their children to foreign gods, the people of the land will follow him in the practice. These kings practiced the forbidden abominations which led to their citizens practicing them as well. That is why the woman had on her forehead “MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.”

Now that we have identified the whore of Babylon to be Jerusalem, we’re going to go back to the beginning and study the vision with the understanding that the whore is Jerusalem. That’s in our next post!

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