Revelation 17:5; Upon Her Forehead Was a Name Written
Revelation 17:5 And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
John also saw a label on the woman’s forehead which divulged her identity – “and upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.”
John does not tell whether the label was directly on the skin as with the mark of the beast (Revelation 13:16-18) or the seal of the slaves of God (Revelation 7:3; 9:4; 14:1) or was on a band such as the one worn by Roman prostitutes (cf. Jeremiah 3:3). (Swete). Either way, the name written on her forehead was a mark of identification.
Revelation 13:16-18 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.
Revelation 7:3 Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.
Revelation 9:4 And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.
Revelation 14:1 And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father’s name written in their foreheads.
Jeremiah 3:3 Therefore the showers have been withholden, and there hath been no latter rain; and thou hadst a whore’s forehead, thou refusedst to be ashamed.
Matthew Henry described well the whore, “How basely this people had forsaken God and gone a whoring from Him. The charge runs very high here. They had multiplied their idols and their idolatries. To have admitted one strange God among them would have been bad enough, but they were insatiable in their lustings after false worships: Thou hast played the harlot with many lovers.
Jeremiah 3:1 They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man’s, shall he return unto her again? shall not that land be greatly polluted? but thou hast played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to me, saith the LORD.
She had become a common prostitute to idols; not a foolish deity was set up in all the neighbourhood but the Jews would have it quickly. Where was a high place in the country but they had had an idol in it?
Jeremiah 3:2 Lift up thine eyes unto the high places, and see where thou hast not been lien with. In the ways hast thou sat for them, as the Arabian in the wilderness; and thou hast polluted the land with thy whoredoms and with thy wickedness.
In repentance it is good to make sorrowful reflections upon the particular acts of sin we have been guilty of, and the several places and companies where it has been committed, that we may give glory to God and take shame to ourselves by a particular confession of it. They had sought opportunity for their idolatries, and had sent about to enquire for new gods: In the high–ways hast thou sat for them, as Tamar when she put on the disguise of a harlot (Genesis 38:14 And she put her widow’s garments off from her, and covered her with a vail, and wrapped herself, and sat in an open place, which is by the way to Timnath; for she saw that Shelah was grown, and she was not given unto him to wife), and as the foolish woman, that sits to call passengers, who go right on their way.
Proverbs 9:14-15 For she sitteth at the door of her house, on a seat in the high places of the city, To call passengers who go right on their ways:
They were not only sinners, but Satans, not only traitors themselves, but tempters to others. They had grown very impudent in sin. They not only polluted themselves, but their land, with their whoredoms and with their wickedness; for it was universal and unpunished, and so became a national sin. And yet(Jeremiah 3:3), “Thou hadst a whore’s forehead, a brazen face of thy own. Thou refusedst to be ashamed; thou didst enough to shame thee for ever, and yet wouldst not take shame to thyself.” Blushing is the colour of virtue, or at least a relic of it; but those that are past shame (we say) are past hope. Those that have an adulterer’s heart, if they indulge that, will come at length to have a whore’s forehead, void of all shame and modesty. They abounded in all manner of sin. They polluted the land not only with their whoredoms (that is, their idolatries), but with their wickedness, or malice (Jeremiah 3:3), sins against the second table: for how can we think that those will be true to their neighbour that are false to their God? “Nay (Jeremiah 3:5), thou hast spoken and done evil things as thou couldst, and wouldst have spoken and done worse if thou hadst known how; thy will was to do it, but thou lackedst opportunity.” Note, Those are wicked indeed that sin to the utmost of their power, that never refuse to comply with a temptation because they should not, but because they cannot.”