And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? did thou wonder?—the same word as in Revelation 17:6. Though the seer cannot fully comprehend the terrible significance of the sign he sees, viz.
that a portion of the Church is one with the hostile world (see on Revelation 17:6), yet there are sufficient marks wherewith to identify it. The woman, the wilderness, the reliance upon the world power, the inscription, the similar description of Judah in Jeremiah 2:1-37 and Jeremiah 3:1-25.
(see on Jeremiah 3:6), might have made the interpretation plain. I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns; the ten horns.
Observe, too, that the "mystery of the woman and of the beast" is all one. (On the "beast," "the seven heads," and "the ten horns." see on previous verses, especially Revelation 13:1.) In Jeremiah 3:1 the harlot is said to sit on the waters; here the beast carries her.
The two statements are really identical; both the beast and the waters represent the worldly power found among "peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues" (Jeremiah 3:14).