One of the angels with the seven bowls takes John into the wilderness to show him the judgment of the great city. He sees a woman sitting on a scarlet beast with seven heads and ten horns. She is dressed in purple and scarlet and covered with gold, jewels, and pearls. She holds a golden cup full of wickedness. On her forehead is a name: Babylon the great. She is drunk with the blood of the saints.

Readers have long understood her as a picture of a rich, proud world system that leads people away from God and persecutes his people. In the Bible, the name Babylon recalls the empire that destroyed Jerusalem. John is amazed, and the angel explains the mystery. The seven heads are seven mountains and seven kings. The ten horns are ten kings who give their power to the beast. The waters she sits on are peoples, nations, and languages.

Then comes the key promise. These will war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings. Those with him are called, chosen, and faithful. In the end, the beast and its allies turn against the city and ruin her. Even evil powers end up serving God’s purpose until his words are fulfilled.

One of the angels who had the seven bowls says to John, Come here. I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute who sits on many waters. In the Old Testament, the prophets often described unfaithfulness to God as spiritual adultery. Here the woman represents the great city that reigns over the kings of the earth, a symbol of a corrupt world system built on wealth, pleasure, and power. Her cup is golden, but it is full of wickedness, and she is drunk with the blood of the saints and of the witnesses of Jesus.

John is amazed, and the angel explains the mystery of the woman and the beast that carries her. The beast that you saw was, and is not; and is about to come up out of the abyss and to go into destruction. It is a dark imitation of God, who is and who was and who is to come. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits and also seven kings. The ten horns are ten kings who receive authority for one hour with the beast. Revelation does not give a simple key for every symbol, and Christians have interpreted these details in different ways.

What is clear is the outcome. These will war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings. They also will overcome who are with him, called, chosen, and faithful. Strikingly, evil destroys itself: the ten horns and the beast come to hate the woman and ruin her. John explains, God has put in their hearts to do what he has in mind, until the words of God should be accomplished.