“One of the seven angels who had poured out the seven bowels came over and spoke to me. ‘Come with me,’ he said, ‘and I will show you the judgment that is going to come on the great prostitute, who rules over may waters. The kings of the world have committed adultery with her, and the people who belong to this world have been made drunk by the wine of her immorality.’
So the angel took me in the Spirit into the wilderness. There I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast and that had seven heads and ten horns, and blasphemies against God were written all over it. The woman wore purple and scarlet clothing and beautiful jewelry made of gold and precious gems and pearls. In her hand she held a gold goblet full of obscenities and the impurities of her immorality. A mysterious name was written on her forehead: ‘Babylon the Great, Mother of All Prostitutes and Obscenities in the World.’ I could see that she was drunk- drunk with the blood of God’s holy people who were witnesses for Jesus. I starred at her in complete amazement.
‘Why are. you so amazed?’ the angel asked. ‘I will tell you the mystery of this woman and of the beast with seven heads and ten horns on which she sits. The beast you saw was once alive but isn’t now. And yet he will soon come up out of the bottomless pit, and go to eternal destruction. And the people who belong to this world, whose names were not written in the Book of Life before the world was made, will be amazed at the reappearance of this beast who have died.'” (Revelation 17, vv. 1-8, NLT)