And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.
Upon the beast. 'Aleph (') A B, Vulgate, Syriac, read, 'and the beast.'
Shall make her desolate - having first dismounted her from her seat (Revelation 17:3).
Naked - stripped of all her gaud (Revelation 17:4). As Jerusalem used the world-power to crucify her Saviour, and then was destroyed by that very power, Rome, so the Church, having apostatized to the world, shall have judgment executed on her by the world-power, the beast and his allies. These afterward shall have judgment executed on them by Christ Himself. So Israel leaning on Egypt, a broken reed, is pierced by it, then Egypt itself is punished. So Israel's whoredom with Assyria and Babylon was punished by the Assyrian and Babylonian captivities. So the Church going a whoring after the world, as if it were the reality, instead of witnessing against its apostasy, is false to its profession: being no longer a reality herself, she is judged by that world which for a time used her to further its ends, while all the while 'hating' Christ's unworldly religion, but which no longer wants her aid.
Eat her flesh - plural, 'masses of flesh;' i:e., 'carnal possessions;' implying the gross carnalities into which she is sunk. The judgment on the harlot is again and again described: first, by an "angel having great power" (Revelation 18:1), then by "another voice from heaven" (Revelation 18:4-20), then by "a mighty angel" (Revelation 18:21-24), then by the jubilant voice of much people in heaven (Revelation 19:2). Compare Ezekiel 16:37-44, originally Israel; further applicable to the New Testament Church when fallen into spiritual fornication. On "eat ... flesh," for prey upon one's property, character, and person, cf. Psalms 14:4; Psalms 27:2; Jeremiah 10:25; Micah 3:3. The first Napoleon's edict at Rome, in 1809, confiscating the papal dominions, and lately the severance of large portions of territory from the pope's sway, for union to the kingdom of Italy, through Louis Napoleon, are a first instalment of the whore's complete destruction. "Her flesh" points to her temporal resources, as distinguished from 'herself.' How striking a retribution, that having obtained her first temporal dominions, the exarchate of Ravenna, the kingdom of the Lombards, and the state of Rome, by recognizing the usurper Pepin as lawful king of France, she should be stripped of her dominions by another usurper of France, the Napoleonic dynasty! After temporal sovereignty and possessions shall be lost to the apostate church, she may prove to be the "false prophet," combining with the beast and dragon. The Reformation saved Christianity from the infidelity with which it was threatened under Pope Leo.
Burn her with fire - the legal punishment of abominable fornication (Leviticus 20:14; Leviticus 21:9).