Revelation 17:4

And the woman was arrayed... — Better, arrayed (or, clad) in purple (the colour of the robe which was in mockery put on our Lord — John 19:2) and scarlet, gilded (not “decked”) with gold, &c. Her appearance is one of imperial splendour. (Comp. the description of Tyre in Ezekiel 28:13.)

Having a golden cup in her hand... — Translate, Having a golden cup in her hand teeming with abominations and with the unclean things of the fornication of the earth. Jeremiah (Jeremiah 51:7) called Babylon a “golden cup in the hand of the Lord.” The cup had made all the earth drunken; the cup of intoxication, splendid and attractive, was full of an evil power, which robbed men’s senses and degraded them. The great city of the world ever holds out such a glittering cup, which

“Most do taste through fond intemperate desire.
Soon as the potion works, their human countenance,
Th’ express resemblance of the gods, is changed
Into some brutish form.......

— Comus, 68-77.