Although the red beast Rome destroyed the daily sacrifice, it cannot destroy the sacrifices in the highest place, the Kingdom just above Mount Zion. Now let’s investigate the image of the beast, its last kingdom Rome, and red Rome’s daughters. This will help us to understand Revelation Fourteen, the one like the Son of Man with a sickle, and then the angel with the sharp sickle who follows him.

The “Footsteps” working text is found here in the Song of Songs:

Until the cool of the day, when the shadows flee, turn, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of Bether. (So 2:17)

“The mountains” in the corresponding midrashic thread allude to the powerful kingdoms that have subdued Israel, and specifically Rome, the largest and most powerful kingdom, whose “feet” are still mingled with the governments of the kingdoms of the earth. The mountains of Bether (Beitar) are an unusually specific reference to a place that had no historical significance until hundreds of years later when the Romans destroyed the last of the Jews there who followed the false messiah Bar Kokhba.