(Rev 17:1) And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, ‘Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:
This first verse connects us back to the previous chapter (Chapter 16) where the seven bowls were being poured out. The seventh bowl is the judgment of Mystery Babylon, the very thing we will be studying. So let’s go back and read that passage first:
“And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, ‘It is done.’ And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great. And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.” – Rev 16:17-21
As is so often the case in the Book of Revelation, it will now, in chapter 17, zoom in to take a closer look at this great city whose judgment has just been foretold. This is a pattern seen very often in the book of Revelation and Scripture in general. For instance, in Revelation 13, it breaks from a chronological narrative to zoom in on the character of the antichrist and False Prophet. This same thing happens in chapter 7 where the chronology of the seals breaks to tell us more about the 144,000 and the “great multitude,” and again in chapter 11 with the two witnesses.
Here it’s no different. After telling us of the destruction of the “great city,” it will now zoom in to give us more details about its character. Those details will continue for two whole chapters in this case, and they will be the focus of this book.
“And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me“
This is one of the seven angels in charge of the seven vials/bowls. The angel takes John aside and will begin to show him more details about the judgment of the “Great Whore.”
It says here that she “sitteth on many waters.”
This is not left for us to guess its meaning, as the angel will later tell us what this phrase means:
“And he saith unto me, ‘The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.’” - Rev 17:15
We can combine this with verse 18 which says:
“And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.” - Rev 17:18
We see that this is a city that might be the center of a world empire of some kind. It will be the chief city in that empire or system. It is the seat of authority that the world government and world religious system comes from.
We will also see in Revelation 11:8 that Scripture specifically identifies the “great city” as Jerusalem. This would be consistent with Daniel 11:45 where speaking of the antichrist it is said:
“And he shall plant the tents of his palace between the seas and the glorious holy mountain…”
(Rev 17:2) with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication
“the kings of the earth…”
Fornication
So what is this fornication? Revelation 19:2 states,
"…the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her fornication….”
To corrupt (phtheiro, in the Greek) in this case means "to cause the moral ruin of.. ”
The terms “harlot,” “whore,” and “fornication” are used very frequently in the Old Testament, and only in a minority of the cases is it referring to actual sexual fornication. In a vast majority of the cases, it is used to describe the worshiping of false gods, especially in reference to Israel.
This is even the case in the famous story of Hosea the prophet. Hosea was told to marry an actual prostitute, but this was intended to be a symbol of God’s relationship with Israel who committed spiritual prostitution by worshiping other gods.
Hosea 3:1 explains:
“Then the LORD said to me, ‘Go again, love a woman who is loved by a lover and is committing adultery, just like the love of the LORD for the children of Israel, who look to other gods and love the raisin cakes of the pagans.’”
Spiritual harlotry is one of the most attested to symbols in Scripture. When God refers to harlotry or fornication and it is obviously symbolic, He makes it clear that it is spiritual harlotry achieved by the worshiping of false gods.
One example that illustrates this well is here:
“Wherefore, O harlot, hear the word of the LORD: Thus saith the Lord GOD; ‘Because thy filthiness was poured out, and thy nakedness discovered through thy whoredoms with thy lovers, and with all the idols of thy abominations, and by the blood of thy children, which thou didst give unto them….” - Eze 16:35-36
Here it is speaking of the practice of Israel sacrificing their children to the god Moloch, as well as the worship of idols of false gods.
We find another good example in Jeremiah 3:6:
“The LORD said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king, ‘Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? She is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there hath played the harlot.’”
Here again we see harlotry made synonymous with the worship of false gods. The term “high places” is referring to the altars that would be made to false gods, and “under the green tree” was also a common place of false worship. This combination of terms is actually referring back to Deuteronomy 12:2:
“Ye shall utterly destroy all the places, wherein the nations which ye shall possess served their gods, upon the high mountains, and upon the hills, and under every green tree…”
The inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication
The kings of the earth are committing fornication with her, but the inhabitants of the earth are made drunk with the wine of her fornications. The earth is drawn in to worship the beast by her own intense worship of him. We will see this more clearly when we study Rev 18:3.
I believe this is best understood as the city of Jerusalem promoting the antichrist not just as their Messiah, but also as God himself. They will be instrumental in the promotion of the worship of antichrist to the world. We see as we progress that the world during the reign of antichrist will do religious service to him, bringing gifts from every nation to worship him. This verse is saying that the world will be enticed into fully worshiping the antichrist by the great city and its inhabitants who lead the charge.
So you can see what it means here – she herself is committing this fornication, and the world is made drunk by it; and they themselves also commit the same fornication.
(Rev 17:3) So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
So here we are introduced to another crucial character in this unholy drama – the scarlet colored beast “…full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.”
This is the exact same beast that is described in Revelation 13, which is almost universally agreed to be a description of the antichrist.
“And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.” - Rev 13:1
It’s important to understand the basic symbolism in our current verse; the “great city” (the woman) is riding the antichrist (the beast with seven heads and ten horns).
This does not mean that she is in any way in control of the antichrist. We know this because later on, in Rev 17:16, the antichrist actually turns on her and will destroy her.
She, however, believes she has found a true husband and her king in the beast.
“..she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.” - Rev 18:7b
Sadly, she is mistaken, and she will be utterly destroyed by the one that she calls her king and her husband.
Being “full of names of blasphemy” is an important description of the antichrist, and his speaking blasphemy is referred to in various places: (Rev 13:1-6; Dan 7:8, Dan 7:20, Dan 7:25, Dan 11:36; 2Th 2:4.)
A few examples of the type of blasphemy of the antichrist can be found here:
“And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done. Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all.” - Dan 11:36-37
And here:
“Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.” – 2Th 2:4
Having seven heads and ten horns.
We will speak more in depth of the seven heads and ten horns when we discuss verses 9 & 10, but I believe they are speaking of the different occasions in history in which the spirit of antichrist has manifested itself in the form of human kings.
As we will see, John says of these seven heads:
“…they are also seven kings, five of whom have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come, and when he does come he must remain only a little while.” – Rev 17:10
One of the heads, I believe the seventh one, which is the one John says is yet to come, will be the antichrist who will receive a mortal wound and yet live.
Back in Revelation 13, when John is talking about this seven-headed beast he says the following:
“And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.” – Rev 13:3
The beast that MB rides is the spirit of antichrist that in the time of the writing of Revelation had already manifested itself in the form of kings six times in history, but one of them, the last head, was still to come in the future. We are also told in Rev 13 that one of these heads, which I believe to be the one yet to come, for reasons I will explain later, will be mortally wounded and will come back to life. This is the beast that MB worships instead of the true God.
(Rev 17:4) And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication
“Arrayed in purple and scarlet colour…”
This particular phrase: “purple and scarlet,” occurs twenty-nine times in the Old Testament, all of them in the book of Exodus; the only other time it occurs is here in Revelation. The entire Old Testament phrase is something like: “blue, purple, scarlet and fine twisted linen.” But, here in Revelation we have a notable lack of the color blue. We will talk about this omission in detail later.
An example of its usage is in Exodus 26:1:
“Moreover thou shalt make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet: with cherubims of cunning work shalt thou make them.”
These curtains of the temple were by no means the only things that were supposed to consist of blue, purple, scarlet, and fine linen. The same phrase was used in relation to the following items:
Almost everything in the service of the temple that was made from cloth was to be made out of these colors.
As we progress, what will be of particular interest to us is the relationship between the clothes of Mystery Babylon and the clothes of the high priest.
Notice, though, there is a difference between what was said of the clothing of Mystery Babylon (“…and the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour…“) and the clothing of the high priest and the various items associated with temple worship (“…blue, purple, scarlet and fine twined linen…).”
At first, it would seem that fine linen is not mentioned in relationship to Mystery Babylon either, but in a later verse (Rev 18:16) it actually does mention “fine linen” as well.
“And saying, ‘Alas, alas, that great city, that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls!’ – Rev 18:16
So the main difference between the clothing of Mystery Babylon and the clothing of the high priest is the color blue. This could be due to the significance that the Bible put on the color blue in relation to its symbolism of being in a right standing with God and His commandments as well as it being a symbol of their not “whoring” any more:
“Speak unto the children of Israel, and bid them that they make them fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put upon the fringe of the borders a ribband of blue: And it shall be unto you for a fringe, that ye may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the LORD, and do them; and that ye seek not after your own heart and your own eyes, after which ye use to go a whoring: That ye may remember, and do all my commandments, and be holy unto your God.” - Num 15:38-40
The Ark of the Covenant in the Tabernacle was also covered with blue cloth (Numbers 4:5-7; 11-13), and the robe of the High Priest was also blue.
I am suggesting that she is wearing the clothing of a harlot high priest who is promoting the worship, not of the true God in temple service, but of the antichrist, who also will make use of the temple.
This interpretation is greatly strengthened when we get to the next verse, which is about the name on the woman’s forehead. We will see the connection to the high priest and the name that was on his forehead. But for now let’s continue on with the present verse.
“…decked with gold and precious stones and pearls”
Decked is really the key word here. It is a different Greek word than the word “arrayed” earlier in the verse. The word “decked” has to do with jewels. One definition says that it means: “to bring an ornament upon.” Decked is not a very common word in the Old Testament. In fact, it is only used 10 times, and it has very provocative uses.
The overall picture of its use in the Old Testament is God saying that He decked Jerusalem with precious jewels when she was in her youth; but as she began to commit adultery by the worship of pagan gods, she then begins to “deck” herself in a different manner.
For example, here in the first part of Ezekiel 16, we see how God decked her in her proverbial youth:
“’I decked thee also with ornaments, and I put bracelets upon thy hands, and a chain on thy neck. And I put a jewel on thy forehead, and earrings in thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon thine head. Thus wast thou decked with gold and silver; and thy raiment was of fine linen, and silk, and broidered work; thou didst eat fine flour, and honey, and oil: and thou wast exceeding beautiful, and thou didst prosper into a kingdom. And thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty: for it was perfect through my comeliness, which I had put upon thee’, saith the Lord GOD. ‘But thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy renown, and pouredst out thy fornications on every one that passed by; his it was.’” - Eze 16:11-15
Then later, when Jerusalem becomes a prostitute, she decks herself a different way:
“And furthermore, that ye have sent for men to come from far, unto whom a messenger was sent; and, lo, they came: for whom thou didst wash thyself, paintedst thy eyes, and deckedst thyself with ornaments.” - Eze 23:40
And in Hosea 2:13:
“’And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim, wherein she burned incense to them, and she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and she went after her lovers, and forgat me,’ saith the LORD.” – Hos 2:13
But one of the most provocative uses of the word “decked” in relation to our verse in Revelation 17:4 is found in Jeremiah 4:29-30 while speaking of the city of Jerusalem. It says:
“Though thou clothest thyself with crimson, though thou deckest thee with ornaments of gold, though thou rentest thy face with painting, in vain shalt thou make thyself fair; thy lovers will despise thee, they will seek thy life.” – Jer 4:30
The connections to Mystery Babylon here should be quite obvious. It is also interesting to note that in this passage Jerusalem’s lover was prophesied to despise her and take her life. This is exactly what the beast which she calls her husband does; he turns on her and attacks the city.
One interesting thing in this verse is the mention of pearls. I found this reference somewhat curious, as there is only one mention of pearls in the OT. In fact, there are only eight references in the entire Bible, and half of those are in the book of Revelation. Three of the other references are using pearls as an example of something valuable, like “the pearl of great price” or “don’t throw your pearls before swine.” The only pearl reference left is also one that I think is applicable to this verse. It is found in 1 Timothy 2:9:
“In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array…” – 1Tim 2:9
Here, being decked with pearls is used as the opposite of modest clothing. That would seem to fit the description of Mystery Babylon, but there may be yet more significance to it that I am not aware of.
“having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication…”
The only other time this phrase “golden cup” appears in the Bible that I know of is in Jer. 51:7. I’m sure it is not a coincidence that the entire chapter of Jeremiah 51 is talking about the actual fall of Babylon the city, which I believe is a prefiguration of Mystery Babylon’s fall.
Many parallels can be seen between these two chapters if you read them carefully. This phrase golden cup is certainly one of them. The verse reads:
“Babylon hath been a golden cup in the LORD'S hand, that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunken of her wine; therefore the nations are mad.” – Jer 51:7
Also notice here that the nations are drunk with the wine in the cup. It makes them “mad.” This is a direct parallel to Revelation 17:2 which says:
“With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.” – Rev 17:2
This is often missed, but I think very important - what is in the cup is her own sin, her own idolatry, and the nations are made drunk by it.
I think that Revelation 18:3 gives us more detail on this:
“For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.” - Rev 18:3
This phrase: “wine of the wrath of her fornication,” as the KJV has it, is kind of an odd way to put it in my opinion. I think the ESV captures the sense of this verse when it says:
“For all nations have drunk the wine of the passion of her [fornication]…”
What I’m suggesting here is that she is so passionately promoting the antichrist as her messiah, as her god, that it entices the world to join her in her fornication, and they then also commit this abomination themselves. It is largely because of her own fierce promotion of this idolatry that the world joins her in this sin of worship of the antichrist. It is also in this sense that she fulfills the role of an idolatrous high priest.
Rev 18:4 expands on this idea that her own sin is causing others to sin:
“And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, ‘Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.’” – Rev 18:4
(Rev 17:5) And upon her forehead was a name written, ‘MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
The first thing I want to focus in on is this phrase “upon her forehead.”
There are two notable things about foreheads in the Old Testament that are going to be important. The first is in relation to the high priest’s uniform. In Exodus 28, it is discussing the headband of the high priest, and says:
“And thou shalt make a plate of pure gold, and grave upon it, like the engravings of a signet, HOLINESS TO THE LORD. And thou shalt put it on a blue lace, that it may be upon the mitre; upon the forefront of the mitre it shall be. And it shall be upon Aaron's forehead, that Aaron may bear the iniquity of the holy things, which the children of Israel shall hallow in all their holy gifts; and it shall be always upon his forehead, that they may be accepted before the LORD.” – Exo 28:36-38
This is a very interesting bit of information considering the connection to the high priest’s garments we have already seen. The High Priest had a gold plate that covered his forehead with the words “HOLINESS TO THE LORD” engraved on it.
This is compared with Mystery Babylon, the harlot high priest, who has on her forehead the following words:
“MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS “
This brings us to the other usage of foreheads in the OT, which I think is also at play here:
“Therefore the showers have been withholden, and there hath been no latter rain; and thou hadst a whore's forehead, thou refusedst to be ashamed.” – Jer 3:3
There is a refusal to be ashamed of her idolatry here, which is exemplified in Mystery Babylon by the proud boasting of her abominations, which are written on her forehead.
I don’t think this should be understood as her knowing that she is worshiping and promoting the antichrist, because she does say that she is not a “widow” and that she sits as a “queen.” I think it just means that her promotion of the antichrist as Messiah will be very bold and out in the open, as the verse of the ESV said: “the passion of her [fornication]” is what will intoxicate the masses.
“MYSTERY,”
Notice the comma in the King James, as in “Mystery, Babylon.” The name is not a proper name Mystery Babylon, as I have been using it, and probably will continue to use it, but rather the “Mystery” here is signifying that there is something secret about the name “Babylon the Great.” Other translations reflect this better in my opinion, for instance:
(The Geneva Bible) “And in her forehead was a name written, A mysterie, that great Babylon, that mother of whoredomes, and abominations of the earth….”
(ESV) “And on her forehead was written a name of mystery: "Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth's abominations."
(ISV-v2.0) “On her forehead was written a secret name: BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF PROSTITUTES AND DETESTABLE THINGS OF THE EARTH.”
The word in Greek for Mystery is: mustrion. It means: a secret or “Mystery,” though there is an idea of silence imposed by initiation into religious rites as well; in other words it’s a secret that can be discovered without it being revealed to you.
The simple fact that the name Babylon is a “mystery” is a strong argument against MB being the literal city Babylon.
This idea of giving cities spiritual names, depending on the type of characteristics they exhibit or have exhibited, is demonstrated earlier in the book of Revelation when it calls Jerusalem by two "spiritual" names. It says, speaking of the two witnesses:
“And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.” – Rev 11:8
Later on we will look more in depth at this verse, but now I only want to call your attention to some of the other spiritual names given to Jerusalem here: Sodom and Egypt. Both are cities known inter- biblically for their various sins, and when Jerusalem acts like one of these notorious cities, the Bible calls it by those names instead of its actual name.
On this phrase, “THE GREAT,” the Bible commentator Adam Clark said:
“This woman is also called Babylon the Great; she is the exact antitype of the ancient Babylon in her idolatry and cruelty, but the ancient city called Babylon is only a drawing of her in miniature. This is indeed Babylon The Great.” - Clark14
“…MOTHER OF HARLOTS…”
We have already discussed the lack of the word all here, as in the “mother of all harlots.” Some try to make this phrase more than the text makes of it. This city is the mother of harlots, she is the harlot of harlots; she is the mother of harlots - in the sense that she is the worst one of all.
A consistent idiom in Scripture is that cites have children, which are often referred to as daughters or simply children of that city.
One example was with Jesus, when on the road to be crucified said this:
“But Jesus turning unto them said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children. For, behold, the days are coming, in which they shall say, ‘Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck.’”- Luk 23:28-29
In Isaiah 4:4, when speaking of the institution of the millennial kingdom it says this:
“When the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and purged the blood of Jerusalem from her midst, by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning.” – Isa 4:4
A side note here is that this purging of Jerusalem in the context of Isaiah 4 happens just before the millennial reign, exactly the place that Mystery Babylon is judged in Rev 16-19. This is strong support for a double fulfillment of the judgments of Jerusalem.
Yet another example of the inhabitants of a city being referred to as children of that city is:
"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate…” – Mat 23:37-38
“...ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH….”
More parallels to Jerusalem are seen here in Jeremiah 6 where it says:
“’Were they [the people of Jerusalem] ashamed when they had committed abomination? No! They were not at all ashamed; Nor did they know how to blush. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall; At the time I punish them, They shall be cast down, says the LORD.” – Jer 6:15
The word “Abominations” is used pretty consistently in Scripture as that which is absolutely detestable to the LORD, but especially that of grievous idolatry and false worship. The “abomination of desolation” spoken of by Daniel, Jesus and Paul is of note here when the antichrist declares himself to be God in the temple. This would be the ultimate abomination, one that will ultimately involve the entire world.
(Rev 17:6) And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.
This verse is one that is often used to prove that the woman is Rome, Islam, or even an allegorical pagan system from time immemorial.
This verse is simply talking about persecution. The “woman” here kills a lot of saints. The commentators always try to prove that their version of Mystery Babylon has killed more than the other candidates for Mystery Babylon. I suppose whoever quotes the highest number of saints killed wins, accurate or not.
I suppose I will also join in this game, but unlike them, I have explicit biblical support that the worst persecution of all time will come out of, and have its epicenter in, Jerusalem.
Speaking of the “Abomination of Desolation” which will occur at the temple mount in Jerusalem, Jesus says in Matthew 24:
“When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains: Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day: For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.” - Mat 24:15-22
So this killing will be so bad that if its days were not cut short, then none of the elect would even survive! Jesus also says that this will be more severe than any before it or any after it. The worst religious genocide of all time, and its epicenter is the city of Jerusalem.
The very fact that the Lord is emphasizing the importance of fleeing quickly when they see the abomination of desolation is proof that there will be many in Jerusalem that will not consider the antichrist’s seating himself in the temple and declaring himself to be God an abomination at all! In fact, just the opposite, they apparently begin to carry out the antichrist’s orders to kill Christians at this point. This killing may indeed spread to the entire world from here, but the fact that its epicenter is the city of Jerusalem is one of the most attested to prophetic events in the Bible.
“blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus:”
Saints and Martyrs could be referring to those killed after the abomination of desolation.
Jesus said that the people killed by the antichrist will be killed because of His “names’ sake” (Mat 24:9).
We know that in addition to Saints and Martyrs, “prophets” are twice added to this list of those that MB kills:
“And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints…”– Rev 18:24a
It is also notable that the two witnesses, who are called “prophets” in Rev 11:10, are said to be killed in the city of Jerusalem:
“And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.” – Rev 11:8
The city “where our Lord was crucified” is unambiguously Jerusalem.
Notes
4Adam Clarke, The Holy Bible containing the Old and New Testaments, (1823), Vol 6, p. 950.