Revelation 17:10

Revelation 17:10. And they are seven kings. The heads are seven kings (not personal kings, comp. on chap. Revelation 13:2) or powers, the world-power being thus again regarded in the sevenfoldness of its unity. Every attempt to understand by these ‘kings' Roman Emperors or Procurators, or Roman forms of government of any kind, is shattered either on the facts of the case, or on the extreme improbability of supposing that a book like the Apocalypse would enter into minute details of the internal government of heathen nations, or on the words actually employed by the Seer (comp. on the word ‘fallen'). Nor is there any real difficulty presented by the consideration that, if one of these ‘kings' be not a person but the Roman power, then this power must be spoken of in a double character as one of the heads of the beast, and as the beast itself. There is nothing to prevent this; for, as the seven churches are one, so the seven heads are one, and each head is no more than a particular and necessarily limited manifestation of evil which is wider and deeper than itself. We have already seen too (on chap. Revelation 13:2) that in prophetic language ‘kings' means kingdoms. The seven ‘kings' mentioned are therefore seven world-powers, Egypt, Nineveh, Babylon, Persia, Graecia, Rome, and a power which is to follow the Roman now beheld tottering to its fall.

The five are fallen, the one is, the other is not yet come; and, when he cometh, he must continue a short while. The word ‘fallen' is worthy of peculiar notice, for it does not signify mere passing away by such a peaceful death as befell some of those Roman Emperors who are often supposed to be referred to as the ‘seven kings.' The word ‘is used in the Septuagint constantly, and in Daniel, of the violent fall, the overthrow, either of kings or of kingdoms: it is a word belonging to domination overthrown, to glory ruined, to empire superseded.' Thus Egypt, Nineveh, Babylon, Persia, and Graecia had successively ‘fallen,' having perished in the ‘blood that they had spilt.' The sixth, described as ‘the one,' is Rome: the seventh, spoken of as ‘the other,' is not yet come.