What Does Revelation 17:2 Mean in the King James?
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.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
One corruption travels from the rulers’ sexual union to a whole earth made drunk by its wine.
THE MEANING
The verse shows kings joining the woman in sexual unfaithfulness and the earth’s inhabitants becoming intoxicated by the wine of that same unfaithfulness. Its reach moves from the rulers’ union to a population whose perception is clouded by its influence. The image speaks wherever corruption at the center spreads its intoxicating effect through the wider world.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that the corruption of rulers stays at the summit; the verse shows its wine reaching the inhabitants of the whole earth.
THE ROOT
πορνεία
porneia
GROWS FROM
πορν-
porn-
The Greek word family for sexual immorality, including prostitution.
“fornication” in this verse is porneia. The Greek repeats this family: the kings commit sexual unfaithfulness, and the wine itself comes from her unfaithfulness. What draws the rulers into union also becomes the intoxicating source for the wider world.
ALSO GROWS
porneuō: To commit sexual immorality.
πορνεύω
This is the verb used for what the kings do, linking their action directly to the noun that describes the wine’s source.
pornē: A prostitute.
πόρνη
This related word keeps the sexual imagery concrete: the woman’s influence is portrayed through an image of sexual commerce and unfaithfulness.
ἐμεθύσθησαν
emethysthēsan
GROWS FROM
μεθυ-
methy-
To be drunk or intoxicated.
“made drunk” in this verse is emethysthēsan. The verb is passive: the inhabitants are portrayed as receiving the intoxication from her wine. The related Greek word family spans becoming drunk and causing drunkenness, bringing the state and its influence into the same image.
ALSO GROWS
methyō: To be drunk or become intoxicated.
μεθύω
It names the state that overtakes the earth’s inhabitants in the verse.
methyskō: To make drunk or intoxicate.
μεθύσκω
This related verb makes the wine’s effect visible: the image includes not only drunkenness, but an influence that produces it.
THE PATTERN
A corrupting influence spreads like an intoxicating cup, drawing rulers and peoples into shared disorder.
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.Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.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.THE THREAD
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.The Greek repeats the same porneia family for the kings’ act and the source of the wine, and repeats the wine image itself. The next chapter makes the reach explicit: nations drink, kings join her, and merchants prosper through her abundance.
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