The Woman in Revelation 17 is symbolically identified as Mystery, Babylon the Great, and is depicted riding the Beast, a position indicating control and dominance over a powerful entity with seven heads and ten horns. This imagery reveals a relationship within the same Babylonish system, yet highlights two distinct aspects or approaches, with the Woman appearing greater, superior, and more influential than the Beast at this point in the prophecy. The Woman and the Beast represent political powers with competing interests and aims, each vying for world domination, which ultimately leads to division and destruction within the system, as confirmed by Revelation 17:16 where the ten horns of the Beast turn against the Woman, making her desolate and burning her with fire. Contrary to assumptions that the Woman represents a church, biblical symbolism, as seen in Ezekiel 16, Isaiah 47, and Lamentations 1:1-7, predominantly portrays a woman as a city, which in turn represents a nation. In Revelation 17 and 18, the Woman symbolizes Babylon, a city and nation, not a religious entity, involved in massive worldwide commerce, manufacturing, and entertainment on a global scale. She is an external influence, separate from the internal politics, economics, religion, or military of the Beast, yet exerts significant power over it within the overarching Babylonish system. Revelation 18 continues this description, emphasizing the Woman's role as a political, economic, and military powerhouse epitomizing Babylon at its peak of worldwide influence in the end time.

In its carnality, Israel reveals a disastrous curiosity and incautious temperament, seeking variety of experience over the truth of God's Word, which reflects her dissatisfied, rebellious, unsettled, and impatient nature. God harshly judges Israel by calling her Sodom, Egypt, and Babylon due to her spiritual adultery and failure to adhere to His commands. This fickle discontentment drives Israel to pursue something different from what God provides, ignoring His desire for uniformity in His way. As a result of her stubbornness and refusal to heed God's counsel against foreign religions and alliances, Israel sought fulfillment in variety and became a great whore.

In Revelation 17 and 18, the Woman symbolizes end-time Israel, depicted as the Great Harlot Babylon due to her faithless relationship with God. Despite entering into a covenant with Him, Israel has rebelled against her responsibilities, embracing the ways of the world to such an extent that she has outdone the Gentiles in her manner of life. God portrays her in close relationship with the Beast, influencing it, with the Joseph tribes, particularly America and Britain, as her strongest components, showcasing significant influence in the end times. The Woman's elegant clothing, jewelry, and precious metals illustrate her immense wealth and power among nations, a wealth that has grown to control a substantial portion of the world's resources. She sits on many waters, the Beast, and seven mountains, indicating her authority and influence over numerous peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues. This position of prominence allows her to teach, guide, or coerce many nations to do her bidding, demonstrating vast powers even over a formidable entity like the Beast. Israel, primarily through the Joseph tribes, is shown as a unified people in contrast to the diverse, unrelated peoples of the Beast, underlining her unique role and intimate association with it through political, trade, and military agreements. Despite her material greatness, she is spiritually great in immorality, confusion, and deviance from responsibility, using her polluted influence to hold the Beast in check until God's appointed time. Her hypocritical stance as a Christian nation while conducting life immorally marks her as a major player in the biblical record, with the blood of martyrs staining her history and more to come in the future.

In the exploration of prophetic symbols in Revelation, the Woman named Mystery, Babylon the Great, as described in chapters 17 and 18, emerges as a significant figure. This Woman is not merely a religious entity but represents a city or nation with immense political, economic, and military influence, involved in vast global merchandising, shipping, and manufacturing. Her identification as a mystery suggests a deeper, symbolic meaning beyond a singular institution, pointing to a powerful entity whose collapse would halt worldwide trade and incite panic among businessmen. Revelation 18 portrays this Woman as a symbol of globalism, with no direct ties to religion, though a male religious figure appears elsewhere in Revelation 13. Instead, the focus is on her authority and dominance, as seen in Revelation 17, where she sits upon many waters, a scarlet Beast with seven heads and ten horns, and seven mountains. These elements symbolize her extensive control over peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues, indicating a wide-ranging influence across diverse groups. The act of sitting conveys her position of power and authority, as though she issues commands and is served by those beneath her. In this end-time prophecy, God appears to view the Woman as a singular, united, and powerful people, distinct from the Beast, which comprises a fragmented array of nations and peoples unable to unify against her. Her ability to hold the Beast in check and direct its actions underscores her unparalleled influence, a dominance that persists until God deems it time for her to be humbled. This portrayal emphasizes her as a central force in the prophetic narrative, embodying both worldly greatness and profound deviation from divine responsibility.

In the vision shown to the apostle John in the wilderness, a woman astride a great scarlet beast emerged as a powerful symbol of corruption. This woman, depicted as a vile harlot and a mother of harlots, had committed fornication with the kings of the earth through idolatry and foreign alliances, embodying spiritual adultery as illustrated in the Old Testament by prophets like Hosea and Ezekiel. Clothed in scarlet and purple, adorned with gold, precious stones, and pearls, she exuded wickedness, holding a golden cup filled with filthiness and abominations. Drunk on the blood of countless true Christians she had killed over centuries, her identity is tied to a false religion that blends Christianity with paganism, creating an intoxicating and destructive influence that has deceived the world's people. Her attire of purple and scarlet, colors associated with power and authority in both pagan and Christian Rome, further marks her as a figure of corrupt religious authority.