And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.
Flood - `river,' (cf. Exodus 2:3; Matthew 2:20; especially Exodus 14:1-31.) The flood is the Germanic tribes which, pouring on Rome, threatened Christianity. But the earth helped the woman, by swallowing up the flood: earth, contradistinguished from water, is the world consolidated. The German masses were brought under the influence of Roman civilization and Christianity (Auberlen). It includes, generally, the help given by earthly powers (those least likely, led by God's overruling Providence) to the Church against persecutions and heresies by which she has been at various times assailed.