Notes on Revelation17: 2:

17:2 kings . . . committed fornication. The harlot will ally herself with the world’s political leaders. Fornication here does not refer to sexual sin, but to idolatry (see note on 14:8 ). All the world rulers will be absorbed into the empire of Satan’s false christ. wine of her fornication. The harlot’s influence will extend beyond the world’s rulers to the rest of mankind (cf. v. 15; 13:8, 14). The imagery does not describe actual wine and sexual sin, but pictures the world’s people being swept up into the intoxication and sin of a false system of religion.