Revelation 17:6

“And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, etc.] To see a woman drunk is a shameful sight; but to see one drunk, not with wine, but with blood, is monstrous, cruel, and shocking; the sword, when it devours, and is satiate, is said to be drunk with blood, (<244610>Jeremiah 46:10) but for a woman to be so is unexampled; and not with her own blood, as she will be, (<234926>Isaiah 49:26 <661606>Revelation 16:6) but with the blood of others; and not with the blood of wicked men, but with the blood of saints; such as God the Father has set apart from everlasting, and chosen to be holy; whom Christ has sanctified by his blood, or whose sins he has expiated, and to whom he is made…”

“martyrs--witnesses. I wondered with great admiration--As the Greek is the same in the verb and the noun, translate the latter "wonder." John certainly did not admire her in the modern English sense. Elsewhere (Rev 17:8; Rev 13:3), all the earthly-minded ("they that dwell on the earth") wonder in admiration of the beast. Here only is John's wonder called forth; not the beast, but the woman sunken into the harlot, the Church become a world-loving apostate, moves his sorrowful astonishment at so awful a change. That the world should be beastly is natural, but that the faithful bride should become the whore is monstrous, and excites the same amazement in him as the same awful change in Israel…”

“And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints - A reeling, intoxicated harlot, for that is the image which is kept up all along. In regard to the phrase “drunken with blood,” compare Jeremiah 46:10. “The phraseology is derived from the barbarous custom (still extant among many pagan nations) of drinking the blood of the enemies slain in the way of revenge. The effect of drinking blood is said to be to exasperate, and to intoxicate with passion and a desire of revenge” (Prof. Stuart, in loco). The meaning here is, that the persecuting power referred to had shed the blood of the saints; and that, in its fury, it had, as it were, drunk the blood of the slain, and had become, by…”

“And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints - So that Rome may well be called, "The slaughter - house of the martyrs." She hath shed much Christian blood in every age; but at length she is even drunk with it, at the time to which this vision refers. The witnesses of Jesus - The preachers of his word. And I wondered exceedingly - At her cruelty and the patience of God. Revelation 17:7”

“17:6 God’s holy people . . . were witnesses for Jesus to the point of shedding their blood (see 16:6; Heb 12:4). In John’s time, Rome was responsible for this persecution.”

“drunken: Rev 13:7, Rev 13:15, Rev 16:6, Rev 18:20-24; Dan 7:21, Dan 7:25 the martyrs: Rev 2:13, Rev 6:9, Rev 6:10, Rev 12:11; Act 22:20 I wondered: Hab 1:13 Revelation 17:7”