Here's more I have on this:
The heads are not the rulers. The horns are the rulers and the heads are WHERE they rule. This is just like Pagan Rome where Caesar (the Antichrist) ruled over ten states with their rulers (the ten horns) and these ten states (kingdoms) were LOCATED on 7 hills (the 7 heads/mountains).
Obviously the 7 hills weren't an additional 7 leaders in Rome anymore than they are 7 more Kings in Rev 13, 17.
Here's the basic issue:
Some translations are based on a manuscript, and some are based on a different manuscript. The manuscripts differ in various ways and this is one of them:
Rev 17:9 And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.
Rev 17:10 And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.
The KJV has the 7 heads/mountains as separate as the 7 kings while other translations have the 7 heads/mountains as also being the 7 kings:
Rev 17:9 This calls for a mind with wisdom: the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated;
Rev 17:10 they are also seven kings, five of whom have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come, and when he does come he must remain only a little while.
Both cannot be correct but there is an easy way to figure out which one is right and which isn't.
Rev 13:1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.
"having seven heads" means the beast possess all 7 heads. If the manuscripts the ESV is based upon are right then the beast would have one head since it says 6 of the heads would have fallen (no longer exist) by the time of the 7th king/head. The fact that the beast has all 7 heads, and none of the heads had fallen means the ESV version is simply wrong. Furthermore, Rev 13 tells us one head was wounded and then healed so instead of 6 heads supposedly falling before the arrival of the 7th head, all the heads are perfectly intact and one even survives a serious wound and does not fall.
The manuscripts the KJV is based upon are correct because they accurately keep the intact and unfallen 7 heads of the Rev 13:1 beast separate from the completely different information about previous kings which were successive and fell one by one until there was a 7th that was standing alone. These 7 kings are the same as the 4 successive beasts in Daniel. Only one existed at a time with the previous falling away. The 4th being equal to the 7th king (who has a beast-kingdom of course) of Rev 17.
Rev 17:9 This calls for a mind with wisdom: the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated;
The 7 heads of the beast are said to be mountains and those are areas of land where kingdoms exist. The only things of the beast which represent kings are the horns:
Rev 17:12 And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.
So, 7 heads are 7 mountains, not kings. The ten horns are the kings of the beast and of course there are 10, not 7 and they are kings for the entire "one hour" the beast reigns over the world. None of the horns or mountains fall leaving others to stand. When it's time for any of the beast to fall, they all fall at the same time being defeated by Christ at Armageddon.
I came at it from a different perspecive.
Revelation 17:10 Interlinear
Revelation 17:9-10 And here [is] the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth. And they are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, [and] the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.
eisi = third person plural present indicative of
eimi; they are:--agree, are, be, dure, X is, were.
eimi = I am.
The seven heads are seven mountains... and they are seven kings.
Fallen doesn't mean cease to exist. The composite beast is the example. They lost their sovereignty and became part of a greater whole. I think this means that all of the fallen kings-representing-their-kingdoms are part of this composite beast... but the Persian Bear, Babylonian Lion, and Leopard Greece are the characteristic and/or prominent parts; i.e., The Babylonian Lion speaks like a dragon... Nebuchadnessar's "I made this for myself, fall down and worship me" theme. This would be the little horn.
Revelation says the ten horns will receive crowns for one hour when the beast rules. And Daniel says in the midst of the ten horns, the little one rises, displacing three of them. Since there were originally seven kings, the three replaced are probably newer than the fallen kingdoms. But this means that during the reign of the beast, when the ten horns are already crowned, the little horn stands up. And since the little horn was wounded, that probably happened when 3 out of 10 get displaced.
Does it seem to you that the beast has been here ever since Jesus left for home?
The rider on the red horse took peace from the earth... Red Dragon, Red Horse... same family. And because of this warrior, famine comes... with a balance in his hand... which is the same Greek word Jesus calls a yoke. The black horse rider is the little horn, he calls the shots... this makes him the second beast. The oil and wine are specifically unharmed, but the bread of the poor costs them all day to earn. This same penny is what we see Jesus giving His servants who are gathering the fruits of the Kingdom of Heaven... and Jesus says don't worry about food, because God feeds even the sparrows.
So... is the rider on
the green horse here, yet? Because plague always follows hard upon the heals of famine, in war-world.
Revelation 6:8 And I looked, and behold a green horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.
chloros = green, grass colored, chlorophyll.
No, he's not here yet... unless the witnesses are being secretly killed, a few at a time?... and so the w-w-party doesn't start until the last of them dies in the streets of Jerusalem.
And all of this means that Satan fell to Earth when Jesus went home... which means the woman of Revelation 12, heavenly zion, has already given birth... not only to Jesus, but to the overcomers and the remnant, as well.
Have the two witnesses been preaching this whole time and nobody noticed it? If so, then the two witnesses are the Divided-Kingdom of David, and Revelation 7:4 has already happened.
Have to wonder why "godly translators" wouldn't mind adding and subtracting words in the Revelation... for which there is a curse. But if we'd known all along that it's a green horse... and "they are" is the literal reading of Revelation 17:10... etc., would we still be hunting the beast? or been preaching the Kingdom of Heaven, all along.
Matthew 24:14 And this Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.
