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:
to hold (used in very various applications · verb — present active participle, genitive plural masculine
seven
ἑπτὰhepta
G2033
seven · adjective — numeral, indeclinable
vials
φιάλαςphialas
G5357
a broad shallow cup ("phial") · noun — accusative plural feminine
and
καὶkai
G2532
and · conjunction
talked
ἐλάλησενelalēsen
G2980
to talk · verb — aorist active indicative, 3rd person singular
with
μετ᾽met᾽
G3326
properly · preposition
me
ἐμοῦemoû
G1700
of me
saying
λέγωνlegōn
G3004
properly · verb — present active participle, nominative singular masculine
me
μοίmoí
G3427
to me
hither
δεῦρο,deuro
G1204
here · interjection
shew
δείξωdeixō
G1166
to show (literally or figuratively) · verb — future active indicative, 1st person singular
thee
σοίsoí
G4671
to thee
judgment
κρίμαkrima
G2917
a decision (the function or the effect · noun — accusative singular neuter
great
μεγάληςmegalēs
G3173
big (literally or figuratively · adjective — genitive singular feminine
whore
πόρνηςpornēs
G4204
a strumpet · noun — genitive singular feminine
sitteth
καθημένηςkathēmenēs
G2521
and (to sit · verb — present middle or passive deponent participle, genitive singular feminine
upon
ἐπὶepi
G1909
properly · preposition
many
πολλῶν,pollōn
G4183
(singular) much (in any respect) or (plural) many · adjective — genitive plural neuter
waters
ὑδάτωνhudatōn
G5204
water (as if rainy) literally or figuratively · noun — genitive plural neuter
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Revelation 19:2 For true and righteous are his judgments: for he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath ave…
Jeremiah 51:13 O thou that dwellest upon many waters, abundant in treasures, thine end is come, and the measure of thy covetousness.
Revelation 17:1-17 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…
Revelation 16:19 And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to gi…
Revelation 21:9 And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hi…
Isaiah 1:21 How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.
Jeremiah 2:20 For of old time I have broken thy yoke, and burst thy bands; and thou saidst, I will not transgress; when upon every high hill and under eve…
Nahum 3:4-5 Because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the wellfavoured harlot, the mistress of witchcrafts, that selleth nations through her whoredom…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Revelation 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, 1. The invitation given to the apostle to take a view of what was here to be represented: Come hither, and I will show thee the judgment of the great whore, etc., Rev 17:1. This is a name of great infamy. A whore [in this passage] is one that is married, and has been false to her husband's bed, has forsaken the guide of her youth, and broken the covenant of God. She had been a prostitute to the kings of the earth, whom she had intoxicated with the wine of her fornication. 2. The appearance she made: it was gay and gaudy,…
And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will show unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters - That idolatrous worship is frequently represented in Scripture under the character of a whore or whoredom, is evident from numerous passages which it is unnecessary to quote. See Ch1 5:25; Ezekiel 16:1-63; 23:1-49, etc. The woman mentioned here is called a great whore, to denote her excessive depravity, and the artful nature of her idolatry. She is also represented as sitting upon many waters, to show the vast extent of her influence. See on Rev 17:13 (note).
John Gill on Revelation 17:1
And there came one of the seven angels that had the seven vials,.... It may be the first of them, since one of the four beasts designs the first of them, in Revelation 6:1 though Brightman thinks the fifth angel is meant, because he poured out his vial on the seat of the beast, who is by this angel described; but rather this is the seventh and last angel, concerned in the utter destruction of antichrist: and therefore proposes to John to show him the judgment of the great whore:
and talked with me, saying unto me, come hither: he conversed with him in a friendly manner, see Zechariah 1:9 and desires him to come nearer to him, and go along with him, adding,
I will show unto thee the judgmen…
Come, I will show you the condemnation of the great harlot, etc. The multitude of the lost, who, forsaking the Creator, surrendered themselves to demons to be defiled, is remembered as sitting on the waters, that is, in the discord of the peoples. Conversely, the multitude of believers was of one heart and one soul. Whom the Apostle betrothed to one man to present a chaste virgin to Christ.
"There came one of the seven angels, which have the seven bowls, and spake with me, saying, Come, I will show thee the judgment of that great whore who sitteth upon many waters. And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs." The decrees of that senate are always accomplished against all, contrary to the preaching of the true faith; and now already mercy being cast aside, itself here gave the decree among all nations.
Having fulfilled the matters concerning the end of the present age, the vision turns to another thing, wishing to show the evangelist the matters concerning Rome. And he says, "Come, I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute who sits on many waters" speaking of "judgment", meaning her conduct and her society, in which she has been judged to be and how she pursues it. And he calls her a "prostitute", as one prostituting herself and apostatizing from God; for this too is called prostitution in divine Scripture according to what was said by the prophet to the God of all: "You have destroyed everyone that commits fornication against you.." (Ps. 72:27) And he says there are "many waters", over which she rules and which are governed, as he himself says.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Antichrist — Against Christ, or an opposition Christ, a rival Christ. The word is used only by the apostle John. Referring to false teachers, he says (1 John 2:18, 22; 4:3; 2 John 1:7), “Even now are there many…
Harlot — (1.) Heb. zonah (Gen. 34:31; 38:15). In verses 21, 22 the Hebrew word used in kedeshah, i.e., a woman consecrated or devoted to prostitution in connection with the abominable worship of Asherah or…
Idolatry · .Licentiousness of — .Licentiousness of
Water · SYMBOLI — SYMBOLI
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Revelation 17:1 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Tyndale Open Study Notes on Revelation 17:1–end
The great drama in this section focuses on the powers that are hostile to God and responsible for the persecution and suffering of God’s people. Rome’s power was captivating to many (17:6); John purposely defines Rome’s sins and provides God’s assessment (17:3-18) before outlining its fall (18:1-24) and heaven’s response (19:1-10).
17:1 One of the . . . angels of judgment addresses John and summons him to a new scene in which he sees the coming judgment of the great prostitute, who rules over many waters. Rome, located on the Tiber River, controlled the seats of power and water trade routes throughout the Mediterranean, from the British Isles to the Euphrates River.
