A quick article to document a *discovery* I've been brought to about the likely origin of the Lord's prayer.
And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. Give us day by day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil. -Jesus {Luk 11:1-4 KJV}
I was recently notified of this page (link below) from Greg Killian that explains in detail what Jesus was teaching, or likely summarizing, when He taught "the Lord's prayer". It's fascinating to learn the Hebraic roots isn't it!? Thanks Greg ;o}
http://www.betemunah.org/amida.html
{Scripture is KJV. Red letter text is Jesus' speaking.}
12/05/16 ~ Where is ... that great city?
I believe that Revelation's harlot is speaking of Jerusalem, here are some scriptures to back me up ...
{Rev 11:8 KJV} And their dead bodies [shall lie] in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. {"their" being the two witnesses}
The women/harlot is that great city ... harlot, woman, city:
{Rev 17:3 KJV} So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
{Rev 17:7 KJV} And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns.
{Rev 17:18 KJV} And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.
Yes, I know, most people think the harlot city is Rome, but they are wrong. The bible generally concerns itself with the people and land of Israel, not the other nations (although they do pay for their sins also). We have such a bad tendency to *westernize* the bible, this should not be. It's always been an eastern book written by Jews/Israelis for their people. We, the church, are an interlude, but otherwise the good book is not about us.
Consider the scriptures to follow:
{Eze 14:21 KJV} For thus saith the Lord GOD; How much more when I send my four sore judgments upon Jerusalem, the sword, and the famine, and the noisome beast, and the pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast? {The four sore judgments spoken of here are the four horsemen of Revelation 6}
{Hos 2:12 KJV} And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, whereof she hath said, These [are] my rewards that my lovers have given me: and I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them. {The whole book of Hosea is about Israel/Jerusalem's harlotry, idolatry against God}
{2Ch 21:11-13 KJV} Moreover he made high places in the mountains of Judah, and caused the inhabitants of Jerusalem to commit harlotry, and led Judah astray. And a letter came to him from Elijah the prophet, saying, Thus says the LORD God of your father David: Because you have not walked in the ways of Jehoshaphat your father, or in the ways of Asa king of Judah, But hast walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and hast made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to go a whoring, like to the whoredoms of the house of Ahab, and also hast slain thy brethren of thy father's house, [which were] better than thyself: ...
{Jer 13:27 KJV} I have seen thine adulteries, and thy neighings, the lewdness of thy whoredom, [and] thine abominations on the hills in the fields. Woe unto thee, O Jerusalem! wilt thou not be made clean? when [shall it] once [be]?
ALL of the prophets of old, and even the new such as John the Baptist and Jesus, warned Israel/Jerusalem of what would happen if they continued in their harlotry against God. They looked to *other gods* instead of the One True God, and after continued warnings they were ultimately vomited out of the land for almost 2,000 years. And now that they're back in the land there is yet again much harlotry going on, and abominations as Israel/Jerusalem takes on the sins of her past captors.
The bible testifies of the multiple abominations in the land and of the peoples ... https://www.blueletterbible.org/search/search.cfm?Criteria=Jerusalem+abomin%2A&t=KJV#s=s_primary_0_1
{1Ki 11:7 KJV} Then did Solomon build an high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, in the hill that [is] before Jerusalem, and for Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon.
{2Ki 23:13 KJV} And the high places that [were] before Jerusalem, which [were] on the right hand of the mount of corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had builded for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Zidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcom the abomination of the children of Ammon, did the king defile.
{2Ki 23:24 KJV} Moreover the [workers with] familiar spirits, and the wizards, and the images, and the idols, and all the abominations that were spied in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, did Josiah put away, that he might perform the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the LORD.
{2Ch 36:14 KJV} Moreover all the chief of the priests, and the people, transgressed very much after all the abominations of the heathen; and polluted the house of the LORD which he had hallowed in Jerusalem.
{Eze 9:4 KJV} And the LORD said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.
{Eze 16:2 KJV} Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations,
{Mal 2:11 KJV} Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah hath profaned the holiness of the LORD which he loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange god.
It was because of these abominations that Israel became *desolate* (abomination that maketh desolate) ...
{Jer 44:22 KJV} So that the LORD could no longer bear, because of the evil of your doings, [and] because of the abominations which ye have committed; therefore is your land a desolation, and an astonishment, and a curse, without an inhabitant, as at this day.
{Eze 33:29 KJV} Then shall they know that I [am] the LORD, when I have laid the land most desolate because of all their abominations which they have committed. {This occurred in 70 AD whereby Israel was cast out of the land for almost 2,000 years!}
{Dan 9:27 KJV} And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make [it] desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
The only harlot, whore, women = that great city, that God has ever been jealous over is Jerusalem. Today she is steeped in sin once again. All I can say is ... God is watching and a time of retribution, Jacob's trouble, is coming.
This article is not one of hate towards Israel or Jerusalem. I believe they ARE God's chosen people and I know He loves them with great fervor. I also know that the LAST THING the prophets of the past wanted to do was to decry desolation against their own peoples and lands. I say this because this is where I've been led after much study. I don't like it, believe me, I don't. But then, I know ... neither did the prophets that also realized the same things.
I believe the seven mountains are the seven kingdoms that Israel took when they came into the land of Canaan, not seven actual/literal mountains or hills (as some would point to Rome or elsewhere) ... but rather these were the seven nations that Israel sat on for which she adopted their customs and idolatry (harlotry) in the days of Solomon and onward to today. You can read more about those seven nations here ... https://www.blueletterbible.org/search/search.cfm?Criteria=seven+nations&t=KJV#s=s_primary_0_1
{Deu 12:1-4 KJV} These [are] the statutes and judgments, which ye shall observe to do in the land, which the LORD God of thy fathers giveth thee to possess it, all the days that ye live upon the earth. Ye shall utterly destroy all the places, wherein the nations which ye shall possess served their gods, upon the high mountains, and upon the hills, and under every green tree: And ye shall overthrow their altars, and break their pillars, and burn their groves with fire; and ye shall hew down the graven images of their gods, and destroy the names of them out of that place. Ye shall not do so unto the LORD your God.
{Deu 12:8-9 KJV} Ye shall not do after all [the things] that we do here this day, every man whatsoever [is] right in his own eyes. For ye are not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance, which the LORD your God giveth you.
{Deu 12:28-32 KJV} Observe and hear all these words which I command thee, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee for ever, when thou doest [that which is] good and right in the sight of the LORD thy God. When the LORD thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee, whither thou goest to possess them, and thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their land; Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise. Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God: for every abomination to the LORD, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods. What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.
Now, read this again and think for yourselves, don't just swallow what others spoon feed you ...
{Jer 2:17-20 KJV} Hast thou not procured this unto thyself, in that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, when he led thee by the way? And now what hast thou to do in the way of Egypt, to drink the waters of Sihor? or what hast thou to do in the way of Assyria, to drink the waters of the river? Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee: know therefore and see that [it is] an evil [thing] and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, and that my fear [is] not in thee, saith the Lord GOD of hosts. For of old time I have broken thy yoke, [and] burst thy bands; and thou saidst, I will not transgress; when upon every high hill and under every green tree thou wanderest, playing the harlot. MORE ... https://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/jer/2/1/s_747001
{Jer 3:1-2 KJV} They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man's, shall he return unto her again? shall not that land be greatly polluted? but thou hast played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to me, saith the LORD. Lift up thine eyes unto the high places, and see where thou hast not been lien with. In the ways hast thou sat for them, as the Arabian in the wilderness; and thou hast polluted the land with thy whoredoms and with thy wickedness.
{Jer 3:6 KJV} The LORD said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? she is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there hath played the harlot.
{Jer 3:8 KJV} And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also. MORE ... https://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/jer/3/1/s_748001
MORE ... https://www.blueletterbible.org/search/search.cfm?Criteria=play%2A+harlot%2A&t=KJV#s=s_primary_0_1
{Eze 16:15-16 KJV} But thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy renown, and pouredst out thy fornications on every one that passed by; his it was. And of thy garments thou didst take, and deckedst thy high places with divers colours, and playedst the harlot thereupon: [the like things] shall not come, neither shall it be [so].
{Eze 16:28 KJV} Thou hast played the whore also with the Assyrians, because thou wast unsatiable; yea, thou hast played the harlot with them, and yet couldest not be satisfied.
{Eze 16:41 KJV} And they shall burn thine houses with fire, and execute judgments upon thee in the sight of many women: and I will cause thee to cease from playing the harlot, and thou also shalt give no hire any more.
{Eze 23:5 KJV} And Aholah played the harlot when she was mine; and she doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians [her] neighbours, {Samaria is Aholah, and Jerusalem Aholibah ... https://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/eze/23/1/s_825001} ...
{Eze 23:19 KJV} Yet she multiplied her whoredoms, in calling to remembrance the days of her youth, wherein she had played the harlot in the land of Egypt.
{Eze 23:44 KJV} Yet they went in unto her, as they go in unto a woman that playeth the harlot: so went they in unto Aholah and unto Aholibah, the lewd women. {Samaria is Aholah, and Jerusalem Aholibah, see Eze 23.}
{Hos 2:5 KJV} For their mother hath played the harlot: she that conceived them hath done shamefully: for she said, I will go after my lovers, that give [me] my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink.
{Hos 3:3 KJV} And I said unto her, Thou shalt abide for me many days; thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou shalt not be for [another] man: so [will] I also [be] for thee.
{Hos 4:15 KJV} Though thou, Israel, play the harlot, [yet] let not Judah offend; and come not ye unto Gilgal, neither go ye up to Bethaven, nor swear, The LORD liveth.
And there are many, many other places in the bible that scorn and warn the harlot of what will come if she doesn't repent and turn back to her God. Does Israel -not- claim to be the "only Democracy" in the middle east? Does she not tout her freedoms as the idolatrous nations we live in today? Why yes, yes she does! Nothing has changed.
MORE ... https://www.blueletterbible.org/search/search.cfm?Criteria=gone+whoring&t=KJV#s=s_primary_0_1
{Lev 17:7 KJV} And they shall no more offer their sacrifices unto devils, after whom they have gone a whoring. This shall be a statute for ever unto them throughout their generations.
{Eze 23:30 KJV} I will do these [things] unto thee, because thou hast gone a whoring after the heathen, [and] because thou art polluted with their idols.
{Hos 4:12 KJV} My people ask counsel at their stocks, and their staff declareth unto them: for the spirit of whoredoms hath caused [them] to err, and they have gone a whoring from under their God.
{Hos 9:1 KJV} Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, as [other] people: for thou hast gone a whoring from thy God, thou hast loved a reward upon every cornfloor.
So then, "that great city" is Jerusalem and none other than. It's always been, since the time they came out of Egypt, as it still is today, that she ... Israel, and in particular Jerusalem (the city God chose to put His own name there) have been playing the harlot with the nations of the world. Think about this folks ... God's government is a Monarchy, not a Democracy. Israel, and therefore Jerusalem, have gone a-whoring. The only cities called a "great city" in the bible were: Nineveh {Assyria}, Gibeon, and Jerusalem. I believe Jerusalem is the harlot/whore/city spoken of in Rev 11 and onward.
{Rev 11:8 KJV} And their dead bodies [shall lie] in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.
MORE ... https://www.blueletterbible.org/search/search.cfm?Criteria=%22great+city%22&t=KJV#s=s_primary_0_1
What we see in Israel today is exactly what we see of those nations that were founded on biblical values (including the UK, US, Canada, etc) ... we, Christians, are not to be this way!
{2Ti 3:5 KJV} Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. https://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/2ti/3/1/s_1128001
Israel pays God lip service, they call on Him when they *need Him*, as do many professing Christians, and *hope* He shows up ... yet they do not have Him in their hearts. They, for the most part, do not have a relationship with the Living God who firstly manifest Himself to them at their betrothal at Mt Sinai.
I believe where Revelation speaks of disaster for this "great city" it was two-fold, once in 70 AD but another "great tribulation" {aka: the time of Jacob's trouble} is coming after Jesus takes His church/bride to heaven and 'shuts the door' {Mat 25:10, Luk 13:25 KJV}. Israel for the most part is the foolish virgin, along with much of the church that is backsliden or doesn't pursue their Ishi (Husband) with all their heart & soul. What husband would take a bride to Himself for whom He has no personal relationship? Read the parable of the ten virgins in Mat 25 for MORE https://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/mat/25/1/s_954001
{Mat 23:34-39 KJV} Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and [some] of them ye shall kill and crucify; and [some] of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute [them] from city to city:
That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.
Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation. {Mat 23-25, Mar 13, Luk 13-17, in 70 AD.}
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, [thou] that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under [her] wings, and ye would not!
Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.
For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed [is] he that cometh in the name of the Lord. - Jesus
The *good news* is, someday (and I believe that day is soon) ... God will turn His eyes back to Jerusalem and all of Israel and after a time of great trouble/tribulation (self-inflicted at that) He will restore her to the kingdom she was in the days of king David.
Do I pray for Israel, and Jerusalem? YES!
* Pray for the peace of Jerusalem ... Psa 122:6
Do I think the modern state of Israel is a fake? NO!
* The Lord said He'd return Judah to the land first ... Zec 12:7
Do I think Jerusalem is that "great city"? YES!
* This article answers that and why I believe it. ... Jer 13:27
Yes indeed, the harlot, that great city, is Jerusalem. I pray for her continually!
Thanks for reading!
{Curly bracket comments are mine. Jesus' words are red lettered text.}
{Rev 11:8 KJV} And their dead bodies [shall lie] in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. {"their" being the two witnesses}
The women/harlot is that great city ... harlot, woman, city:
{Rev 17:3 KJV} So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
{Rev 17:7 KJV} And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns.
{Rev 17:18 KJV} And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.
Yes, I know, most people think the harlot city is Rome, but they are wrong. The bible generally concerns itself with the people and land of Israel, not the other nations (although they do pay for their sins also). We have such a bad tendency to *westernize* the bible, this should not be. It's always been an eastern book written by Jews/Israelis for their people. We, the church, are an interlude, but otherwise the good book is not about us.
Consider the scriptures to follow:
{Eze 14:21 KJV} For thus saith the Lord GOD; How much more when I send my four sore judgments upon Jerusalem, the sword, and the famine, and the noisome beast, and the pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast? {The four sore judgments spoken of here are the four horsemen of Revelation 6}
{Hos 2:12 KJV} And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, whereof she hath said, These [are] my rewards that my lovers have given me: and I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them. {The whole book of Hosea is about Israel/Jerusalem's harlotry, idolatry against God}
{2Ch 21:11-13 KJV} Moreover he made high places in the mountains of Judah, and caused the inhabitants of Jerusalem to commit harlotry, and led Judah astray. And a letter came to him from Elijah the prophet, saying, Thus says the LORD God of your father David: Because you have not walked in the ways of Jehoshaphat your father, or in the ways of Asa king of Judah, But hast walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and hast made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to go a whoring, like to the whoredoms of the house of Ahab, and also hast slain thy brethren of thy father's house, [which were] better than thyself: ...
{Jer 13:27 KJV} I have seen thine adulteries, and thy neighings, the lewdness of thy whoredom, [and] thine abominations on the hills in the fields. Woe unto thee, O Jerusalem! wilt thou not be made clean? when [shall it] once [be]?
ALL of the prophets of old, and even the new such as John the Baptist and Jesus, warned Israel/Jerusalem of what would happen if they continued in their harlotry against God. They looked to *other gods* instead of the One True God, and after continued warnings they were ultimately vomited out of the land for almost 2,000 years. And now that they're back in the land there is yet again much harlotry going on, and abominations as Israel/Jerusalem takes on the sins of her past captors.
The bible testifies of the multiple abominations in the land and of the peoples ... https://www.blueletterbible.org/search/search.cfm?Criteria=Jerusalem+abomin%2A&t=KJV#s=s_primary_0_1
{1Ki 11:7 KJV} Then did Solomon build an high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, in the hill that [is] before Jerusalem, and for Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon.
{2Ki 23:13 KJV} And the high places that [were] before Jerusalem, which [were] on the right hand of the mount of corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had builded for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Zidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcom the abomination of the children of Ammon, did the king defile.
{2Ki 23:24 KJV} Moreover the [workers with] familiar spirits, and the wizards, and the images, and the idols, and all the abominations that were spied in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, did Josiah put away, that he might perform the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the LORD.
{2Ch 36:14 KJV} Moreover all the chief of the priests, and the people, transgressed very much after all the abominations of the heathen; and polluted the house of the LORD which he had hallowed in Jerusalem.
{Eze 9:4 KJV} And the LORD said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.
{Eze 16:2 KJV} Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations,
{Mal 2:11 KJV} Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah hath profaned the holiness of the LORD which he loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange god.
It was because of these abominations that Israel became *desolate* (abomination that maketh desolate) ...
{Jer 44:22 KJV} So that the LORD could no longer bear, because of the evil of your doings, [and] because of the abominations which ye have committed; therefore is your land a desolation, and an astonishment, and a curse, without an inhabitant, as at this day.
{Eze 33:29 KJV} Then shall they know that I [am] the LORD, when I have laid the land most desolate because of all their abominations which they have committed. {This occurred in 70 AD whereby Israel was cast out of the land for almost 2,000 years!}
{Dan 9:27 KJV} And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make [it] desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
The only harlot, whore, women = that great city, that God has ever been jealous over is Jerusalem. Today she is steeped in sin once again. All I can say is ... God is watching and a time of retribution, Jacob's trouble, is coming.
This article is not one of hate towards Israel or Jerusalem. I believe they ARE God's chosen people and I know He loves them with great fervor. I also know that the LAST THING the prophets of the past wanted to do was to decry desolation against their own peoples and lands. I say this because this is where I've been led after much study. I don't like it, believe me, I don't. But then, I know ... neither did the prophets that also realized the same things.
I believe the seven mountains are the seven kingdoms that Israel took when they came into the land of Canaan, not seven actual/literal mountains or hills (as some would point to Rome or elsewhere) ... but rather these were the seven nations that Israel sat on for which she adopted their customs and idolatry (harlotry) in the days of Solomon and onward to today. You can read more about those seven nations here ... https://www.blueletterbible.org/search/search.cfm?Criteria=seven+nations&t=KJV#s=s_primary_0_1
{Deu 12:1-4 KJV} These [are] the statutes and judgments, which ye shall observe to do in the land, which the LORD God of thy fathers giveth thee to possess it, all the days that ye live upon the earth. Ye shall utterly destroy all the places, wherein the nations which ye shall possess served their gods, upon the high mountains, and upon the hills, and under every green tree: And ye shall overthrow their altars, and break their pillars, and burn their groves with fire; and ye shall hew down the graven images of their gods, and destroy the names of them out of that place. Ye shall not do so unto the LORD your God.
{Deu 12:8-9 KJV} Ye shall not do after all [the things] that we do here this day, every man whatsoever [is] right in his own eyes. For ye are not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance, which the LORD your God giveth you.
{Deu 12:28-32 KJV} Observe and hear all these words which I command thee, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee for ever, when thou doest [that which is] good and right in the sight of the LORD thy God. When the LORD thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee, whither thou goest to possess them, and thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their land; Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise. Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God: for every abomination to the LORD, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods. What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.
Now, read this again and think for yourselves, don't just swallow what others spoon feed you ...
{Jer 2:17-20 KJV} Hast thou not procured this unto thyself, in that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, when he led thee by the way? And now what hast thou to do in the way of Egypt, to drink the waters of Sihor? or what hast thou to do in the way of Assyria, to drink the waters of the river? Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee: know therefore and see that [it is] an evil [thing] and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, and that my fear [is] not in thee, saith the Lord GOD of hosts. For of old time I have broken thy yoke, [and] burst thy bands; and thou saidst, I will not transgress; when upon every high hill and under every green tree thou wanderest, playing the harlot. MORE ... https://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/jer/2/1/s_747001
{Jer 3:1-2 KJV} They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man's, shall he return unto her again? shall not that land be greatly polluted? but thou hast played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to me, saith the LORD. Lift up thine eyes unto the high places, and see where thou hast not been lien with. In the ways hast thou sat for them, as the Arabian in the wilderness; and thou hast polluted the land with thy whoredoms and with thy wickedness.
{Jer 3:6 KJV} The LORD said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? she is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there hath played the harlot.
{Jer 3:8 KJV} And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also. MORE ... https://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/jer/3/1/s_748001
MORE ... https://www.blueletterbible.org/search/search.cfm?Criteria=play%2A+harlot%2A&t=KJV#s=s_primary_0_1
{Eze 16:15-16 KJV} But thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy renown, and pouredst out thy fornications on every one that passed by; his it was. And of thy garments thou didst take, and deckedst thy high places with divers colours, and playedst the harlot thereupon: [the like things] shall not come, neither shall it be [so].
{Eze 16:28 KJV} Thou hast played the whore also with the Assyrians, because thou wast unsatiable; yea, thou hast played the harlot with them, and yet couldest not be satisfied.
{Eze 16:41 KJV} And they shall burn thine houses with fire, and execute judgments upon thee in the sight of many women: and I will cause thee to cease from playing the harlot, and thou also shalt give no hire any more.
{Eze 23:5 KJV} And Aholah played the harlot when she was mine; and she doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians [her] neighbours, {Samaria is Aholah, and Jerusalem Aholibah ... https://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/eze/23/1/s_825001} ...
{Eze 23:19 KJV} Yet she multiplied her whoredoms, in calling to remembrance the days of her youth, wherein she had played the harlot in the land of Egypt.
{Eze 23:44 KJV} Yet they went in unto her, as they go in unto a woman that playeth the harlot: so went they in unto Aholah and unto Aholibah, the lewd women. {Samaria is Aholah, and Jerusalem Aholibah, see Eze 23.}
{Hos 2:5 KJV} For their mother hath played the harlot: she that conceived them hath done shamefully: for she said, I will go after my lovers, that give [me] my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink.
{Hos 3:3 KJV} And I said unto her, Thou shalt abide for me many days; thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou shalt not be for [another] man: so [will] I also [be] for thee.
{Hos 4:15 KJV} Though thou, Israel, play the harlot, [yet] let not Judah offend; and come not ye unto Gilgal, neither go ye up to Bethaven, nor swear, The LORD liveth.
And there are many, many other places in the bible that scorn and warn the harlot of what will come if she doesn't repent and turn back to her God. Does Israel -not- claim to be the "only Democracy" in the middle east? Does she not tout her freedoms as the idolatrous nations we live in today? Why yes, yes she does! Nothing has changed.
MORE ... https://www.blueletterbible.org/search/search.cfm?Criteria=gone+whoring&t=KJV#s=s_primary_0_1
{Lev 17:7 KJV} And they shall no more offer their sacrifices unto devils, after whom they have gone a whoring. This shall be a statute for ever unto them throughout their generations.
{Eze 23:30 KJV} I will do these [things] unto thee, because thou hast gone a whoring after the heathen, [and] because thou art polluted with their idols.
{Hos 4:12 KJV} My people ask counsel at their stocks, and their staff declareth unto them: for the spirit of whoredoms hath caused [them] to err, and they have gone a whoring from under their God.
{Hos 9:1 KJV} Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, as [other] people: for thou hast gone a whoring from thy God, thou hast loved a reward upon every cornfloor.
So then, "that great city" is Jerusalem and none other than. It's always been, since the time they came out of Egypt, as it still is today, that she ... Israel, and in particular Jerusalem (the city God chose to put His own name there) have been playing the harlot with the nations of the world. Think about this folks ... God's government is a Monarchy, not a Democracy. Israel, and therefore Jerusalem, have gone a-whoring. The only cities called a "great city" in the bible were: Nineveh {Assyria}, Gibeon, and Jerusalem. I believe Jerusalem is the harlot/whore/city spoken of in Rev 11 and onward.
{Rev 11:8 KJV} And their dead bodies [shall lie] in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.
MORE ... https://www.blueletterbible.org/search/search.cfm?Criteria=%22great+city%22&t=KJV#s=s_primary_0_1
What we see in Israel today is exactly what we see of those nations that were founded on biblical values (including the UK, US, Canada, etc) ... we, Christians, are not to be this way!
{2Ti 3:5 KJV} Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. https://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/2ti/3/1/s_1128001
Israel pays God lip service, they call on Him when they *need Him*, as do many professing Christians, and *hope* He shows up ... yet they do not have Him in their hearts. They, for the most part, do not have a relationship with the Living God who firstly manifest Himself to them at their betrothal at Mt Sinai.
I believe where Revelation speaks of disaster for this "great city" it was two-fold, once in 70 AD but another "great tribulation" {aka: the time of Jacob's trouble} is coming after Jesus takes His church/bride to heaven and 'shuts the door' {Mat 25:10, Luk 13:25 KJV}. Israel for the most part is the foolish virgin, along with much of the church that is backsliden or doesn't pursue their Ishi (Husband) with all their heart & soul. What husband would take a bride to Himself for whom He has no personal relationship? Read the parable of the ten virgins in Mat 25 for MORE https://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/mat/25/1/s_954001
{Mat 23:34-39 KJV} Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and [some] of them ye shall kill and crucify; and [some] of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute [them] from city to city:
That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.
Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation. {Mat 23-25, Mar 13, Luk 13-17, in 70 AD.}
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, [thou] that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under [her] wings, and ye would not!
Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.
For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed [is] he that cometh in the name of the Lord. - Jesus
The *good news* is, someday (and I believe that day is soon) ... God will turn His eyes back to Jerusalem and all of Israel and after a time of great trouble/tribulation (self-inflicted at that) He will restore her to the kingdom she was in the days of king David.
Do I pray for Israel, and Jerusalem? YES!
* Pray for the peace of Jerusalem ... Psa 122:6
Do I think the modern state of Israel is a fake? NO!
* The Lord said He'd return Judah to the land first ... Zec 12:7
Do I think Jerusalem is that "great city"? YES!
* This article answers that and why I believe it. ... Jer 13:27
Yes indeed, the harlot, that great city, is Jerusalem. I pray for her continually!
Thanks for reading!
{Curly bracket comments are mine. Jesus' words are red lettered text.}
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