A woman given up to fornication: there were such as early as Genesis 38:15 . The term is used metaphorically for unfaithfulness: "how is the faithful city become an harlot!" Isaiah 1:21; Ezekiel 16:31,35 . The mystic Babylon is designated "The mother of harlots," Revelation 17:5 : not only unfaithful herself, but the mother of such.