REVELATION OF ST. JOHN THE DIVINE - Chapter 17 - Verse 2

Verse 2. With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication. Spiritual adultery. The meaning is, that Papal Rome, unfaithful to God, and idolatrous and corrupt, had seduced the rulers of the earth, and led them into the same kind of unfaithfulness, idolatry, and corruption. Compare Jer 3:8-9; 5:7; 13:27; 23:14; Eze 16:32; 23:37; Ho 2:2

Ho 4:2. How true this is in history need not be stated. All the princes and kings of Europe in the dark ages and for many centuries were, and not a few of them are now, entirely under the influence of Papal Rome.

And the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. The alluring cup which as an harlot she had to said extended them. See this image explained in Barnes on "Re 14:8".

There it is that Babylon—referring to the same thing—had "made them drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication;" that is, of the cup that led to wrath or punishment. Here it is said that the harlot had made them "drunk with the wine of her fornication;" that is, they had been, as it were, intoxicated by the alluring cup held out to them. What could better describe the influence of Rome on the people of the world, in making them, under these delusions, incapable of sober judgment, and in completely fascinating and controlling all their powers?

{c} "whom the kings of the earth" Re 18:3 {a} "scarlet-coloured beast" Re 12:3 {b} "having seven heads" Re 13:1