Chapter Thirty-Three/Judging the Infamous Harlot - Sitting on Many Waters

 Ancient Babylon sat on many waters-the Euphrates River and numerous canals. These were a protection to her as well as a source of commerce producing wealth, until they dried up in one night. (Jeremiah 50:38; 51:9, 12, 13) Babylon the Great also looks to "many waters" to protect and enrich her. These symbolic waters are "peoples and crowds and nations and tongues," that is, all the thousands of millions over whom she had dominated and from whom she has drawn material support. But these waters are also drying up, or withdrawing support. -REVELATION 17:15; compare PSALM 18:4; ISAIAH 8:7. 

Further, Babylon of old was described as "a golden cup in the hand of Jehovah, she is making all the earth drunk." (Jeremiah 51:7) Ancient Babylon forcing neighboring nations to swallow expressions of Jehovah's anger when she conquered them militarily, making them as weak as drunken men. In that respect, she was Jehovah's instrument. Babylon the Great, too, has made conquests to the point of becoming a worldwide empire. She is certainly not God's instrument. Rather, she has served "the kings of the earth" with whom she commits religious fornication. She has gratified these kings by using her lying doctrines and enslaving practices to keep the massed of the people, "those who inhabit the earth," weak as drunken men, passively subservient to their rulers. 

Next time: Chapter Thirty-Three/Judging the Infamous Harlot - Sitting on Many Waters - Conclusion 

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