What do the waters in Revelation 17:15 represent?
The waters in Revelation 17:15 represent peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues. They symbolize the worldwide population among whom the great religious system operates, not literal waters. The verse identifies the waters where the whore sits as the mass of humanity that makes up that global religious system.
Les explains that the waters are not literal but symbolic. In the passage, the angel tells John that the waters where the whore sits are people and multitudes and nations and tongues. Les emphasizes this depicts a worldwide religious system operating among all peoples. The whore, or religious system, rides on the beast, meaning it is being subsidized by it. Later the ten horns turn on her, make her desolate, eat her flesh, and burn her with fire, showing that the Antichrist will destroy this religion. So the waters represent the vast human following of that global religious system.
And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.