In Revelation 17:1, when the angel invited John to come and see the judgment (decision) God had determined concerning the woman, John was told that the woman “is seated on many waters.” The Spirit had then carried John into “a wilderness” (where very little water is present) where he saw the woman “sitting on a scarlet beast.” It appears to the reader that those two details contradict each other. The point is not that we try to draw a picture of what is described, but that we understand the significance of the symbolism. In the present verse the angel explains that the “many waters” of Revelation 17:1 represent “peoples and multitudes and nations and languages.” This fourfold list appears (with some variety) seven times throughout Revelation to denote universality.
15 And the angel said to me, “The waters that you saw, where the prostitute is seated, are peoples and multitudes and nations and languages.