Vials] RV 'bowls.'
3-6. St. John is taken to a wilderness to see the harlot city, as in Isaiah 21:1 the vision of Babylon's fall was declared from a wilderness. She is sitting on a beast, i.e. the Roman empire: cp. Isaiah 13:1. The beast is scarlet, because of the blood shed by Rome. It is full of names of blasphemy (e.g. Sebastos; see on Revelation 13:1), for in coins and seals and statues and temples the empire was full of such names. It has seven heads and ten horns, explained in Revelation 17:9; Revelation 17:12 (Revelation 17:3). The woman, i.e. the city, is clothed with luxury, and she has in her hand a golden cup, signifying debauchery: cp. Revelation 14:8; Jeremiah 51:7; (Revelation 17:4). On her forehead, after the custom of Roman harlots, is a label with her name (Revelation 17:5). She is drunken with the blood shed in the persecution of Nero. St. John wonders at her iniquity (Revelation 17:6).