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Revelation 17:2
ESV with whom the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality, and with the wine of whose sexual immorality the dwellers on earth have become drunk."
NIV With her the kings of the earth committed adultery, and the inhabitants of the earth were intoxicated with the wine of her adulteries."
NASB with whom the kings of the earth committed acts of sexual immorality, and those who live on the earth became drunk with the wine of her sexual immorality.'
CSB The kings of the earth committed sexual immorality with her, and those who live on the earth became drunk on the wine of her sexual immorality."
NLT The kings of the world have committed adultery with her, and the people who belong to this world have been made drunk by the wine of her immorality.'
KJV With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
NKJV with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication.”

What does Revelation 17:2 mean?

John has been told to view a highly symbolic vision: a prostitute symbolizing a false and ungodly form of religion. This system is given the name Babylon (Revelation 17:5), frequently discussed as the "Whore of Babylon."

This verse emphasizes the extent of spiritual corruption religious Babylon exerts over international leaders. "Sexual immorality" is a literal sin, but it's often used figuratively in the Bible to represent spiritual apostasy and idolatry. This imagery is meant to link the temptation to seek other gods, and the shameful acts which follow, to a person who is tempted with sexual immorality, with degrading and unhealthy behavior following as a result. Both are associated with betrayal of a person to whom the immoral person ought to have been loyal.

For example, 2 Chronicles 21 says King Jehoram did evil in the sight of the Lord and had forsaken the Lord, the God of his fathers. Verse 11 charges that "he made high places in the hill country of Judah and led the inhabitants of Jerusalem into whoredom and made Judah go astray." Isaiah also carried God's indictment to the people of Jerusalem. He stated that the city that was once faithful to the Lord had become immoral and unjust and had become a whore (Isaiah 1:21). Ezekiel 16:16, too, charged the people of Israel with sexual immorality—idolatry. The verse states: "You took some of your garments and made for yourself colorful shrines, and on them played the whore."

The reference here to sexual immorality might include some aspects of physical sexual sin, but it primarily points to the idolatrous worship of the beast by the world leaders and their citizens (Revelation 13:11–12).
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