4
The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of the sexual immorality of the earth.
Highlighted
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 4. Cup.… full of the abomination, and so forth These are common scriptural expressions for the abominations of idolatry, with which ancient Rome had notoriously polluted herself. For not content with worshipping her own heathenish gods, she adopted those of all the countries and nations she had subdued. In Rome itself there were no less than 420 heathenish temples, so that one of their most famous poets, Ovid, (lib. i. Trist.) says:
Sed quæ de septem totum circumspicit orbem,
Montibus Imperii, Roma, Deûmque locus.
Private to this browser.