According to Isaiah 54:5, Israel was in a marriage covenant with God. However, Jerusalem committed adultery against her God, spiritual husband and king by killing the Messiah and His people and declaring Caesar, the beast, her king instead during Christ’s crucifixion: “We have no king but Caesar!” (John 19:15). This rejection of Christ, Jerusalem’s spiritual husband, in favor of Caesar is depicted as an adulterous affair between the beast, representing Rome and its Caesars, and Jerusalem in Revelation 17 and 18.
In Ezekiel 16 Jerusalem is depicted as an adulterous wife. This enrages the Lord and in Ezekiel 16:38 He says, “I will sentence you [Jerusalem] to the punishment of women who commit adultery[.]” According to the Law of Moses, the punishment for adultery is stoning (John 8:4-5, Ezekiel 16:38-40). And burning is the prescribed punishment for the daughter of a priest who is found to be a prostitute (Leviticus 21:9). In 70 AD, Roman solders catapulted heavy stones (the weight of a talent) over the wall then once inside burned Jerusalem, the harlot, to the ground thus giving her the punishment prescribed by law.
As for the Beast (Rome), the other half of the creature. Explaining the part about "which was and is not, yet will be" is much easier to explain.
The beast is a broad metaphor for Rome and the emperors who ruled its two first-century dynasties, the Caesar family dynasty and the Flavian family dynasty. Therefore, the beast who once was represents the Roman Empire under the Caesar Dynasty. The fact that the beast “now is not” implies that the beast dies with Nero, the last emperor of the Caesar Dynasty or family line. And Nero’s suicide triggered a civil war as Nero had not named his successor. Therefore, the beast is metaphorically considered dead in A.D. 69 during the three-way civil war after Nero’s death. The fact that the beast “yet will come” implies a kind of resurrection of Nero and his empire. The beast of Rome did not begin to show signs of life until the end of A.D. 69 at the rise of the Flavian Dynasty when Vespasian, the beast whose wound had been healed in Revelation 13:3, Titus and Domitian were all officially declared Caesar. Soon after the Flavian Dynasty rose to power the revolts in Jerusalem and the three-way civil war in Rome that began after Nero’s death had ended. The Flavian Dynasty, had saved the Roman Empire which was on the precipice of collapsing while at the zenith of its power. The rise of the Flavian Dynasty marks the resurrection of the beast of Rome. This notion is implicit in a coin minted during Vespasian’s reign which depicts Vespasian reaching his hand out to help the Goddess Roma back to her feet. If Roma is being helped back to her feet by Vespasian, does this imply a popular perception that Rome had temporarily fallen or at least stumbled during the year of the four Caesars? Under the leadership of the Flavian Dynasty the beast had risen from the Abyss. Its wound had been healed! The restoration of the peace and stability of the Roman Empire under the Flavians is, however, not the only way in which the Roman beast is historically and metaphorically resurrected from the dead.
In Ezekiel 16 Jerusalem is depicted as an adulterous wife. This enrages the Lord and in Ezekiel 16:38 He says, “I will sentence you [Jerusalem] to the punishment of women who commit adultery[.]” According to the Law of Moses, the punishment for adultery is stoning (John 8:4-5, Ezekiel 16:38-40). And burning is the prescribed punishment for the daughter of a priest who is found to be a prostitute (Leviticus 21:9). In 70 AD, Roman solders catapulted heavy stones (the weight of a talent) over the wall then once inside burned Jerusalem, the harlot, to the ground thus giving her the punishment prescribed by law.
As for the Beast (Rome), the other half of the creature. Explaining the part about "which was and is not, yet will be" is much easier to explain.
The beast is a broad metaphor for Rome and the emperors who ruled its two first-century dynasties, the Caesar family dynasty and the Flavian family dynasty. Therefore, the beast who once was represents the Roman Empire under the Caesar Dynasty. The fact that the beast “now is not” implies that the beast dies with Nero, the last emperor of the Caesar Dynasty or family line. And Nero’s suicide triggered a civil war as Nero had not named his successor. Therefore, the beast is metaphorically considered dead in A.D. 69 during the three-way civil war after Nero’s death. The fact that the beast “yet will come” implies a kind of resurrection of Nero and his empire. The beast of Rome did not begin to show signs of life until the end of A.D. 69 at the rise of the Flavian Dynasty when Vespasian, the beast whose wound had been healed in Revelation 13:3, Titus and Domitian were all officially declared Caesar. Soon after the Flavian Dynasty rose to power the revolts in Jerusalem and the three-way civil war in Rome that began after Nero’s death had ended. The Flavian Dynasty, had saved the Roman Empire which was on the precipice of collapsing while at the zenith of its power. The rise of the Flavian Dynasty marks the resurrection of the beast of Rome. This notion is implicit in a coin minted during Vespasian’s reign which depicts Vespasian reaching his hand out to help the Goddess Roma back to her feet. If Roma is being helped back to her feet by Vespasian, does this imply a popular perception that Rome had temporarily fallen or at least stumbled during the year of the four Caesars? Under the leadership of the Flavian Dynasty the beast had risen from the Abyss. Its wound had been healed! The restoration of the peace and stability of the Roman Empire under the Flavians is, however, not the only way in which the Roman beast is historically and metaphorically resurrected from the dead.