Miserabile Visu (Ex Malo Bonum) Lyrics

Lyric discussion by blondy269 

Cover art for Miserabile Visu (Ex Malo Bonum) lyrics by Anberlin

I agree with bustinloose that "The man from seven hills is again the beast. The seven hills are the seven heads which the beast has." For anyone interested, I'm going to go a bit deeper into what this is all referring to.

Revelation 12:1-5, "And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born. And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne."

Let's interpret this. The dragon is Satan. The woman is the church. Notice though, the dragon has seven heads. What do these seven heads represent? Revelation 17:9, "And here is the mind which hath widsom. The seven heads are seven moutains, on which the woman sitteth." These heads represent seven moutains. The seven mountains of Rome (or the "seven hills" as they are referred to in this song).

So we have Satan (the dragon) working through Rome, to kill the seed of the woman when He is born. The seed of the woman is obviously Jesus Christ. And true to the prophecy, a Roman authority named Herod did try to kill Jesus at His birth.

Song Meaning