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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - Revelation 17:16 - 17:16
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
These shall hate the harlot (houtoi misēsousin tēn pornēn). Future active of miseō. Houtoi is resumptive demonstrative pronoun (masculine) referring to the ten horns and the beast (neuter); construction according to sense. The downfall of Rome will come from the sudden change in subject peoples.
Shall make her desolate and naked (ērēmōmenēn poiēsousin autēn kai gumnēn). Future active of poieō and perfect passive predicate accusative participle of erēmoō, old verb (from erēmos desolate), again in Rev 18:16, Rev 18:19. Gumnēn (naked) is predicate adjective.
Shall eat her flesh (tas sarkas autēs phagontai). Future middle of the defective verb esthiō, to eat. Note plural sarkas, portions of flesh (Jam 5:3) as in Psa 27:2; Mic 3:3.
Shall burn her utterly with fire (autēn katakausousin en puri). Future active of katakaiō, to burn down (perfective use of kaiō). John wrote before the days of Alaric, Genseric, Ricimer, Totila, with their hordes which devastated Rome and the west in the fifth and sixth centuries. “No reader of the Decline and Fall can be at a loss for materials which will at once illustrate and justify the general trend of St. John’s prophecy” (Swete).