The location of Revelation 17:15 may strike the reader as surprising. First of all, we now finally receive an explanation for the waters mentioned in Revelation 17:1. Second, the verse reads as an interruption to the flow of thought since both Revelation 17:12 and Revelation 17:15 mention the ten horns.
Yet these words very much belong here because with this verse the focus of the angel’s explanation has shifted from the beast to the woman. The woman who sat sovereign over many waters (Revelation 17:15) is the object of the hatred of the horns and the beast (Revelation 17:16) and is the city of Revelation 17:18.
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.