“... The angel then describes division in the ranks of evil: And the ten horns that you saw, they and the beast will hate the whore. With traditional graphic metaphors, Revelation describes the destruction of Rome by the beast and his ten subordinate rulers (Isa. 49:26; Ezek. 16:35-41; 23:25-31; Hos. 2:2-7; Mic. 3:1-3). With the phrase make her desolate, literally “make her a desert,” the image changes from the waters back to the wilderness, using a word from the phrase “desolating sacrilege” (Luke 21:20). That she is naked contrasts with the luxurious clothes she formerly wore (v. 4). The beast and its ten horns then devour the whore, like the wild dogs that ate the flesh of the idolatrous Queen Jezebel (2 Kings 9:30-37; see also Jer. 10:25; Ezek. 39:4,17-20; Zeph. 3:3). The beast and his confederates will, in turn, be devoured like the whore (Rev. 19:17-21). Finally, the tormenters of the whore will burn her up with fire, the traditional punishment for harlotry (Lev. 21:9; cf. 18:8-9; Josh. 7:15; Jer. 38:18, 23). No doubt this is also an allusion to the suspicion that Nero set fire to Rome in A.D. 64 (Tac., Annals 15.38-41). The entire picture is one of mutiny—the beast (emperor) and his horn (provincial rulers) turning against the whore (city of Rome; see Ezek. 38:21; Hag. 2:22; Zech. 14:13). More symbolically, Rome’s power of seduction has become disgusting, like a whore who is destroyed by her clients. ...”