The old testament is full of history. It documents the rise and fall of kings and kingdoms, empires and cities, Judges and prophets. There were good kings such as Josiah who did what was right in the sight of God, while others like Ahab, did evil. There were also good queens such as Esther who saved her people from the likes of Haman; and evil queens like Jezebel who filled the northern kingdom of Israel with witchcraft, idol worship, Phoenician gods and goddesses and pagan sacrifices.
We also have mention of numerous cities that are often given feminine pronouns that maximize specific characteristics focused on behavior and their relationship to God. Some cities had good qualities while others did not; and that set them up for judgement.
Sodom and Gomorrah were marked for judgement "Because the cry of of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous..." Genesis 18:20-22
As we know, the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed because the inhabitants were consumed with iniquity and haughty pride. When compared with the iniquity of Jerusalem, Sodom was called the sister with daughters in the book of Ezekiel. Chapter 16 is full of feminine verbiage describing cities.
The harlotry of Jerusalem is described in great detail as she played the harlot, trusting in her own beauty. She had committed fornication with the Egyptians provoking God to anger, and she had also played the harlot with the Assyrians. Ezekiel 16:26,28.
But as a wife that commits adultery, which takes strangers instead of her husband! And I will judge thee, as women that break wedlock and shed blood are judged; Ezekiel 16:32,38
Cities or specific geographical locations were often described throughout the Bible as women, depicting characteristics using feminine pronouns. This helped the reader identify cities by their relationship to each other as well as their relationship to Yahweh, or Christ Jesus. For example: New Jerusalem is the bride of the Lamb. Feminine metaphors are often used within scripture linking cities with specific human traits that are familiar to the average person. This 'humanization' of cities or geographical locations such as Judea or Samaria, makes it easy for the reader to grasp what the author is stating.
She, her, sister, daughter, adulteress, mistress, widow, harlot, bride or wife were common references used to define cities or specific geographical locations, while the imagery of a mountain, (or beast in Daniel's case), were used in reference to kingdoms.
Looking at the burden of Tyre in Isaiah 23, we find that the prophet Isaiah speaks of Tyre using feminine pronouns and compares Tyre to a forgotten harlot that commits fornication with all the nations.
And it shall come to pass in that day that Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king; after the end of seventy years shall Tyre sing as an harlot. Take an harp, go about the city, thou harlot that has been forgotten, make sweet melody, sing many songs, that you may be remembered. And it shall come to pass after the end of seventy years, that the Lord will visit Tyre, and she shall turn to her hire, and shall commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth. Isaiah 23:15-17
In the book of Jeremiah, the southern kingdom of Judah had fallen into great harlotry and immorality. Jeremiah had preached to Judah for over forty years, warning the inhabitants of great wrath and judgement to come. The warnings fell on deaf ears. The God of Israel had put his words in Jeremiah's mouth. Jeremiah 1:9
They say, if a man put away his wife, and she goes from him and becomes another man's, shall he return unto her again? shall not that land be greatly polluted? but thou hast played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to me, saith the Lord. Jeremiah 3:1
...thou has polluted the land with thy harlotry and with thy wickedness. Jeremiah 3:2b
And I said after she had done all these things, Turn thou unto me. but she returned not. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it. And I saw, that for all the adulteries of faithless Israel, I had sent her away and given her a writ of divorce, yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear; but she went and was a harlot also. Jeremiah 3:7,8
Return O backsliding children says the Lord; for I am married unto you Jeremiah 3:14a
Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian empire. She was a great city, vast in volume and size. Nineveh was described as the mistress of witchcraft, a well favored harlot that sells the nations by her harlotry and families by her sorcery. Nahum 3:4
She was judged for the multitudes of her whoredoms, her witchcraft, human trafficking and sorcery. The Lord of Hosts threw her skirts over her face, showing the nations her nakedness, and the kingdoms her shame. He cast abominable filth upon her and made her vile, a warning to the nations. Nahum 3:5-7
Babylon was described by the prophet Isaiah as the dethroned daughter of the Chaldeans, thrown to the dust to wallow in her sorrow.
Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon, sit on the ground; there is no throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans; for thou shall no more be called tender and delicate. Take thy millstone and grind meal. Remove your veil, strip off the skirt, uncover the leg, cross the rivers, your nakedness will be uncovered and your shame will be exposed. Isaiah 47:1-3b
Babylon was the city who relied upon the multitudes of her sorcery and enchantments rejecting the God of the Bible; feeling secure in her wickedness.
Stand now with thine enchantments and with the multitude of thy sorceries, wherein thou hast laboured from thy youth....Thou are wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators stand up and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee. Isaiah 47:12a,13
The prophet Isaiah prophesized the judgement of Babylon. Similar to the judgement of Nineveh, Babylon is described as a woman who will face judgement. Thy nakedness shall be uncovered, thy shame shall be seen: I will take vengeance, and I will not meet thee as a man. O daughter of the Chaldeans, for you will no longer be called the queen of kingdoms.
In Revelation 21:2 John witnessed New Jerusalem come down from heaven prepared as a bride adorned for her husband, and the wife of the Lamb - verse 9b. She is the holy city intimately connected to Yeshua Hamashiach.
And I john saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.... Come hither, I will show you the bride, the Lamb's wife.
New Jerusalem is made of precious stones, and pearls and pure gold; Revelation 21:18-21, which the harlot woman in Revelation 17 mimics as she is also adorned in gold and precious stones and pearls. She is an earthly carnal city that imitates the heavenly city, the bride of the Lamb.
Revelation 17 identifies a great city metaphorically detailed as a harlot woman having great authority over the seven heads of the beast, seven world kingdoms in the latter days. She spell binds the kings of the earth with her fornication. In turn, the kings of the earth made the inhabitants of the earth drunk from her vile intoxication Rev 17:2. And for this, she will be severely punished.
And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. Rev 14:8
Nineveh was also destroyed to the degree similar to the destruction that we find in Revelation 18 which details the judgement of the harlot city described in Revelation 17.
Isaiah 13:19 details the final prophesized destruction of Babylon as similar to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah: sudden, cataclysmically, utter devastation, annihilated beyond repair.
And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.
The woman is a metaphor for a great city that is connected to the rise of the Beast kingdom in the last days. The timing is the tribulation period and the tribulation is a future event.
This is a city intimately connected to the scarlet beast kingdom as she is carried upon his seven heads, symbolically paraded about like a prized possession. She is eerily similar to Nineveh who was the mistress of witchcraft; a well-favored harlot that sells the nations by her harlotry and families by her sorceries.
Revelation 17:18 And the woman (γυνη - wife, bride) that thou saw is that great (μεγάλη - large, mighty, megas) city (πολις polis- mother city); which reigns (Greek- βασιλείαν has kingship) over the kings of the earth.
The picture is the city of Istanbul, Turkey. Istanbul, formally Constantinople, was the capital of the Byzantine Empire in the middle ages. Constantinople 395 A,D. - 1453 A.D,, was the center of ancient Orthodox Christianity located in Turkey, home of the seven churches. The city was conquered by the Ottoman empire and given over to an anti-Christ religion that vehemently denies the divinity of Yeshua Hamashiach. The stronghold of eastern Christianity was turned into an apostate city literally overnight.
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