17:11 the eighth. The “eighth” kingdom can only be that of the beast himself. It encompasses all the evil characteristics of the seven before it, but especially of the founder of all seven, the first Babel, whose very physical existence itself the beast will finish restoring and then designate it as capital of his world empire.

17:14 Lamb shall overcome them. This is surely a key verse of Scripture. All the armies of the world, following all the hosts of Satan, are on their way to Armageddon to “make war with the Lamb,” but He shall defeat them merely “with the Spirit of His mouth” (II Thessalonians 2:8).

17:14 King of kings. Note I Timothy 6:15; Revelation 19:16. How incredibly presumptuous it is for Satan or any man or all the creatures of the earth to think they can vanquish their Creator.

17:16 shall hate the whore. The great whore is Mystery Babylon, the erstwhile ally of political Babylon. She has incorporated all the anti-Christian and pseudo-Christian religions under her control, and probably all educational and cultural and sociological systems as well, in a vast syncretistic pseudo-religion designed to promote worship of the beast and Satan as the god of this world. Once that is accomplished, however, the political powers will have no further use for her and will appropriate all her vast holdings for themselves, destroying everything they cannot use.