(1) The harlot sitting upon the waters--17:1-2. “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.” The term harlot has been used always in a figurative sense to denote wicked cities, as of Nineveh in Nahum 3:4; and of Jerusalem in Isaiah 1:21; and of Israel, when the nation became a harlot by the practice of idolatry in Revelation. So here apostate Jerusalem, in broken relation with God, was given the mystic name Babylon, the mother of harlots. From generations past the execration of Israel had increased from the time of prophet’ s reprobations in Isaiah 1:21 to the Lord’ s lamentations in Matthew 23:29-39. By the elders of Israel the official responsibility for crucifying the Christ was placed upon Jerusalem in Matthew 27:25. The martyr Stephen laid upon Jerusalem with the criminal charges of “ betrayers and murders” in Acts 7:52. The descriptions in Revelation, chapters 14:8; 17: l-6; 18: l-2 were but extensions of the same exposures in the continuing apostasies of Jerusalem. The vision of the harlot that sitteth upon many waters was based upon the fact and the history that Jerusalem depended on her affiliations with the Roman Empire and its tributaries for commerce, revenue and support. This statement has been considered an indication that the Harlot was Rome, sitting on the waters. But the same figure of speech was applied to Babylon in Jeremiah 51:13 : “ 0 thou that dwellest upon many waters.” It was not a reference to a literal geographical location, but to commercial sources of revenue and support; and it was a very impressive imagery of Jerusalem’ s dependence on affiliations with the heathen tributaries of Rome.