Revelation 17:15: And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.

In Revelation 17:1, an angel began to show John the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters.¹ John then saw the evolution of the Great Whore of false religion² from the time that ancient Rome supported her like a woman on a scarlet coloured (blood-stained) beast.³ He also saw the Great Whore fornicate with the ten kings (modern nations)⁴ who make war with Lamb until they are overcome in the physical and spiritual battles of Armageddon at the Second Coming.⁵

John was shown all these images to help him understand that the false religion once supported by the ancient Roman Empire is also the Great Whore⁶ of false religion⁷ supported by many waters in the last days.⁸ The angel uses the symbolic world number (four)⁹ to explain¹⁰ that the waters represent peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.¹¹ The world number¹² confirms that the image of many waters represent the wicked¹³ supporters of false religion on a worldwide scale.¹⁴ Nephi also saw in vision the same worldwide reach of the whore of all the earth in the last days in 1 Nephi 14:11.¹⁵