Revelationchapter 18
24 verses · John, by tradition · AD 95 or 96 · Revelation
And he cried out in a mighty voice: “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a lair for demons and a haunt for every unclean spirit, every unclean bird, and every detestable beast.
Introduction
John, by tradition, Revelation, Revelation Overview.
The writer is John, held on the island of Patmos, and he wrote to seven churches in the Roman province of Asia. His hearers lived in port and market cities that grew rich on the empire's trade and honoured its rulers as gods. This chapter is a funeral song over a great city, sung before the city falls. It borrows the words the prophets once used over Babylon and over Tyre. Listen for who mourns and who is told to rejoice. Listen also for the one command given to God's people before the judgment arrives. Read it as the sequel to the harlot of the chapter before.
Context
- Who
- People whose livelihoods were wired into an economy they could not opt out of
- What
- A vision of the fall of Babylon the great, with three laments from the kings, the merchants and the seamen, and a call to heaven to rejoice.
- Where
- John received the vision on the island of Patmos and sent it to the seven churches of the Roman province of Asia, cities that lived on trade by sea and road.
- When
- About AD 95, late in the reign of Domitian, on the date most commentators give; others hold an early date under Nero, about AD 68.
- Why
- To show that the world's wealth and its seductions end under God's judgment, and to call God's people out of that world before the end comes.
Historical context
This chapter is a funeral over a trading empire, and its most remarkable feature is the cargo list. Gold, silver, precious stones, pearls, fine linen, purple, silk, scarlet, scented wood, ivory, costly wood, brass, iron, marble, cinnamon, spices, incense, ointment, frankincense, wine, oil, fine flour, wheat, cattle, sheep, horses, chariots, and last, "slaves, and souls of men."
Show the rest of the historical context, 4 more paragraphs
That is an accurate inventory of Roman luxury imports. Silk came overland from the far east and cost fortunes. Marble was shipped from quarries across the Mediterranean. Citrus wood tables were a famous extravagance. And the slave trade was the bottom line of the whole system: Rome's economy ran on human beings, and the text puts them at the end of the list, counted with the freight, which is precisely the outrage.
Rome's grain came by sea. A fleet sailed from Egypt and North Africa into Puteoli and later Ostia to feed the capital, and a delay in that fleet meant hunger in the streets. So when the shipmasters and sailors stand "afar off" watching the smoke, weeping, saying "what city is like unto this great city," they are weeping over their business.
Three groups mourn in turn, kings, merchants, and seafarers, and every one of them mourns for the same reason: no man buys their merchandise any more. Nobody in the chapter mourns for the city's people.
And a voice says: come out of her, my people, that you be not partakers of her sins.
Significance
For believers embedded in guilds, ports, and markets, this was uncomfortably practical. "Come out of her" was not an invitation to leave town; it was a call to stop being complicit while still living there.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The chapter also gave them a measure. Everyone with money mourns the loss of a market; heaven is told to rejoice, because in her was found the blood of prophets and saints. The same fall looks completely different depending on which side of the ledger you were on.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Babylon Is Fallen: Come Out of Her, My People
Revelation 18:1-3
illuminated by his glory: The angel cries Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, doubling the word as Isaiah 21:9 did over the first Babylon. Her crime is named three ways: the nations drank her wine, the kings were immoral with her, and the merchants grew wealthy from her luxury.
Revelation 18:1
“And after these things - After the vision referred to in the previous chapter. I saw another angel come down from heaven - Different from the one that had last appeared, and therefore coming to make a new communication to him. It is not unusual in this book that different communications should be entrusted to different angels. Compare Rev 14:6, Rev 14:8-9, Rev 14:15, Rev 14:17-18. Having great power - That is, he was one of the higher rank or order of angels. And the earth was lightened with his glory - The usual representation respecting the heavenly beings.”
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Revelation 18:1
And--so Vulgate and ANDREAS. But A, B, Syriac, and Coptic omit "And." power--Greek, "authority." lightened--"illumined." with--Greek, "owing to."
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
a lair for demons: Adam Clarke lists three cities that readers have found in this cry, pagan Rome, papal Rome and Jerusalem. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, on verse 24, widen the name to the whole faithless church of both Testaments. Clarke later judged that no city yet fits.
Revelation 18:2
“Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen - This is a quotation from Isa 21:9: And he said, Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all the graven images of her gods he hath broken unto the ground. This is applied by some to Rome pagan; by others to Rome papal; and by others to Jerusalem. Is become - the hold of every foul spirit - See the parallel passages in the margin. The figures here point out the most complete destruction. A city utterly sacked and ruined, never to be rebuilt.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
the passion of her immorality: Primasius of Hadrumetum reads the verse as three kinds of sin matched to three companies, avarice, licentiousness and gluttony. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note that the word for luxury is akin to the verb for growing wanton at 1 Timothy 5:11. The merchants grew rich on appetite.
Revelation 18:3
“Babylon, the whore, is destroyed before the beast slays the two witnesses (Re 11:7), and then the beast himself is destroyed. the wine--so B, Syriac, and Coptic. But A, C, and Vulgate omit. abundance--literally, "power." delicacies--Greek, "luxury." See on 1Ti 5:11, where the Greek verb "wax wanton" is akin to the noun here.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Revelation 18:4-5
A voice from heaven calls God's people out, as Lot was called out of Sodom and Israel out of Babylon at Jeremiah 51:6 and 45. Her sins are piled up to heaven, the picture used of Babel's tower and Sodom's outcry.
Revelation 18:4
“And I heard another voice - Of Christ, whose people, secretly scattered even there, are warned of her approaching destruction. That ye be not partakers of her sins - That is, of the fruits of them. What a remarkable providence it was that the Revelation was printed in the midst of Spain, in the great Polyglot Bible, before the Reformation!”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Revelation 18:4
“Come out of her, my people - These words appear to be taken from Isa 48:20; Jer 1:8; Jer 51:6, Jer 51:45. The poet Mantuanus expresses this thought well: - Vivere qui sancte cupitis, discelite; Romae Omnia quum liceant, non licet esse bonum. “Ye who desire to live a godly life, depart; for, although all things are lawful at Rome, yet to be godly is unlawful.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Revelation 18:4
“The first justification of the woman is in her being called out of Babylon the harlot, as the culminating stage of the latter's sin, when judgment is about to fall: for apostate Christendom, Babylon, is not to be converted, but to be destroyed.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
piled up to heaven: Albert Barnes hears Jeremiah 51:9 behind the line, where the first Babylon's judgment reaches to the skies. He reads the height as notice, the sins standing so high that God saw them, as Abel's blood cried from the ground in Genesis 4:10. The record is kept in heaven.
Revelation 18:6-8
Give back to her: The measure is her own: mix her a double portion in her own cup, the rule of Galatians 6:7. Her boast, I am not a widow, echoes the first Babylon in Isaiah 47:7-9, where widowhood and the loss of children arrive on one day.
Revelation 18:6
“Reward her - This God speaks to the executioners of his vengeance. Even as she hath rewarded - Others; in particular, the saints of God. And give her double - This, according to the Hebrew idiom, implies only a full retaliation.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Revelation 18:6
“Addressed to the executioners of God's wrath. Reward--Greek, "repay." she rewarded--English Version reading adds "you" with none of the oldest manuscripts.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Her own boast is the charge against her. The sentence is measured by her self-glory, so the torment matches the luxury she enjoyed. Bede reads the boast as a refusal to look ahead, since she delighted in present luxuries and would not guard against the reckoning.
her plagues will come: Andreas of Caesarea takes the one day as the suddenness of the blow, with sword, famine and pestilence arriving together. Adam Clarke tests the burning against history. Alaric and Totilas burned only parts of Rome, and Clarke found no city yet treated so.
Revelation 18:8
“Therefore shall her plagues come - Death, by the sword of her adversaries; mourning on account of the slaughter; and famine, the fruits of the field being destroyed by the hostile bands. Utterly burned with fire - Of what city is this spoken? Rome pagan has never been thus treated; Alaric and Totilas burnt only some parts with fire. Rome papal has not been thus treated; but this is true of Jerusalem, and yet Jerusalem is not generally thought to be intended.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Revelation 18:8
"Strong" is the meaning of God's Hebrew name, "EL." judgeth--But A, B, and C read the past tense (Greek, "krinas"), "who hath judged her": the prophetical past for the future: the charge in Re 18:4 to God's people to come out of her implies that the judgment was not yet actually executed.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Kings, Merchants, and Sailors Weep for the City
Revelation 18:9-10
lived in luxury with her: The kings watch her burn and stand at a distance, fearing her torment. Their cry, Woe, woe to the great city, is the first of three laments, in the dirge form Ezekiel used over Tyre in Ezekiel 26-27.
the mighty city of Babylon!: The kings call Babylon the mighty city, and John Wesley notes that Rome's own name in Greek means strength. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown call that derivation doubtful. Bede hears a wider grief, since the kings name one city and mourn a whole world.
Revelation 18:10
“Saying: Woe, woe, that great city Babylon, etc. The spirit names the city, but they mourn the world, intercepted by punishment in a very short time, and all their efforts stained with ruin.”
Bede · written before 735 · Commentary on Revelationpatristic
2 more voices on this verse
Revelation 18:10
“God's judgments inspire fear even in the worldly, but it is of short duration, for the kings and great men soon attach themselves to the beast in its last and worst shape, as open Antichrist, claiming all that the harlot had claimed in blasphemous pretensions and more, and so making up to them for the loss of the harlot. mighty--Rome in Greek means strength; though that derivation is doubtful.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Revelation 18:10
“Thou strong city - Rome was anciently termed by its inhabitants, Valentia, that is, strong. And the word Rome itself, in Greek, signifies strength. This name was given it by the Greek strangers.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
Revelation 18:11-14
will weep and mourn over her: The second lament belongs to the merchants, because there is no one left to buy their cargo. The list follows the inventory of Tyre's trade at Ezekiel 27:12-24 and ends with slaves and souls of men.
Revelation 18:11
“But A and C read the present, "weep and mourn." merchandise--Greek, "cargo": wares carried in ships: ship-lading (compare Re 18:17). Rome was not a commercial city, and is not likely from her position to be so. The merchandise must therefore be spiritual, even as the harlot is not literal, but spiritual.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
all kinds of citron wood: The cargo list opens with the goods the woman wore at 17:4: gold, precious stones, and pearls, purple and scarlet. Her cargo is her dress.
Revelation 18:12
“The merchandise of gold, and silver, etc. - The same author, Bishop Bale, who was once a priest of the Romish Church, goes on to apply all these things to that Church; and whether the text have this meaning or not, they will show us something of the religious usages of his time, and the real mockery of this intolerant and superstitious Church.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Revelation 18:12
“Merchandise of gold, &c. - Almost all these are still in use at Rome, both in their idolatrous service, and in common life. Fine linen - The sort of it mentioned in the original is exceeding costly.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
slaves and souls of men: The word rendered slaves is bodies in the Greek, so the list sells men as goods and then names them as souls. The word for chariots is a Latin loanword, and Ezekiel 27:13 lists the same trade in men at Tyre.
Revelation 18:13
“English Version reading is supported by Coptic and ANDREAS, but not oldest manuscripts. ointments--Greek, "ointment." frankincense--Contrast the true "incense" which God loves (Ps 141:2; Mal 1:11). fine flour--the similago of the Latins [ALFORD]. beasts--of burden: cattle. slaves--Greek, "bodies." souls of men-- (Eze 27:13).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 more voices on this verse
Revelation 18:13
“And cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense,.... Things for delight and pleasure, for the gratifying of the senses; cinnamon, and odours were used for perfuming, Pro 7:17 anointing with oil was used at feasts, Psa 23:5 and "frankincense", or censings, at banquets, and for the regaling of persons after food (k): these customs obtained among the eastern people.”
Revelation 18:13
“And cinnamon - Cinnamon is the aromatic bark of the Laurus Cinnamomam, which grows in Arabia, India, and especially in the island of Ceylon. It was formerly, as it is now, a valuable article in the Oriental trade. And odours - Aromatics employed in religious worship, and for making perfumes.”
all your luxury and splendor: The word behind fruit means the ripe fruit of autumn, so the city loses its harvest at the height of the season. With it all your luxury and splendor have vanished, never to be seen again.
Revelation 18:14
“Direct address to Babylon. the fruits that thy soul lusted after--Greek, "thy autumn-ripe fruits of the lust (eager desire) of the soul." dainty--Greek, "fat": "sumptuous" in food. goodly--"splendid," "bright," in dress and equipage. departed--supported by none of our manuscripts.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Revelation 18:14
“And the fruits that thy soul lusted after - και ἡ οπωρα της επιθυμιας της ψυχης σου. As οπωρα signifies autumn, any and all kinds of autumnal fruits may be signified by the word in the above clause. Dainty and goodly - Τα λιπαρα· Delicacies for the table. Τα λαμπρα, what is splendid and costly in apparel.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Revelation 18:15-17
grew their wealth from her: The merchants stand at a distance like the kings, and their lament repeats her dress from 17:4, adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls. The loss comes in a single hour, and the seafarers follow as the third company.
clothed in fine linen and purple: Bede asks whether a city can wear fine linen and purple, and answers that the merchants mourn themselves, stripped of the goods they sold. Adam Clarke reads the verb as laden with, so the clothing is the city's stock in trade. The lament repeats the kings' words at verse 10.
Revelation 18:16
“And saying, alas, alas! that great city,..... Using the same words the kings of the earth do, Rev 18:10 only adding, suitable to their characters as merchants, and the things they traded in with her, that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls; See Gill on Rev 18:12, Rev 17:4, see also Eze 27:32.”
2 more voices on this verse
Revelation 18:16
“Which was clothed in fine linen and purple and scarlet. Is a city clothed in fine linen or purple, and not people? Thus, they mourn themselves, as they are stripped of the above-mentioned things.”
Bede · written before 735 · Commentary on Revelationpatristic
Revelation 18:16
“Clothed in fine linen, and purple, etc. - The verb περιβαλλεσθαι, which we here translate clothed, signifies often to abound, be enriched, laden with, and is so used by the best Greek writers; see many examples in Kypke. These articles are not to be considered here as personal ornaments, but as articles of trade or merchandise, in which this city trafficked.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Verse 8 says her plagues will come in one day, and here the wealth is lost in a single hour. Both measures mark how sudden the fall is. Every shipmaster, passenger, and sailor watches it from a distance.
Revelation 18:17
“For in one hour - In a very brief period - so short, that it seemed to them to be but one hour. In the prediction Rev 18:8, it is said that it would be “in one day” (see the notes on that place); here it is said that, to the on-lookers, it seemed to be but an hour. There is no inconsistency, therefore, between the two statements. So great riches is come to nought - All the accumulated wealth of so great and rich a city.”
Revelation 18:18-19
the smoke rising from the fire: The seafarers throw dust on their heads, the sign of mourning at Job 2:12 and Joshua 7:6. They mourn the city where all who had ships on the sea were enriched, and ask what city was ever like this great city.
Revelation 18:18
“And cried when they saw the smoke of her burning,.... See Gill on Rev 18:9. saying, what city is like unto this great city? as before for magnificence and grandeur, so now for sorrow, desolation, and ruin; nor was any city like it for power and authority, for pride and luxury, for idolatry and superstition, blasphemy and impenitence; the like the sailors say of Tyre, Eze 27:30 from whence this and other expressions are borrowed in this lamentation.”
throw dust on their heads: Bede gives the dust two senses, shame cast on the leaders who misled them and a late repentance for their own folly. Albert Barnes adds a plain economic point, that a luxurious city enriches many traders while it drains itself. John Wesley traces the lament to Ezekiel 26 to 28.
Revelation 18:19
“And they cast dust on their heads - A common sign of lamentation and mourning among the Orientals. See the notes on Job 2:12. By reason of her costliness - The word rendered “costliness” - τιμιότητος timiotētos - means, properly, “preciousness, costliness”; their magnificence, costly merchandise. The luxury of a great city enriches many individuals, however much it may impoverish itself. For in one hour is she made desolate - So it seemed to them. See the notes on Rev 18:17.”
2 more voices on this verse
Revelation 18:19
“And they threw dust on their heads. That is, reproaching the face of their leaders; by whom they were seduced and perished; or accusing the madness of their heart, which is the principal part of a man, with late repentance.”
Bede · written before 735 · Commentary on Revelationpatristic
Revelation 18:19
“And they cast dust on their heads - As mourners. Most of the expressions here used in describing the downfall of Babylon are taken from Ezekiel's description of the downfall of Tyre, Ezek. xxvi, 1 - Ezek. xxviii, 19.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
A Millstone Thrown Down, Never Found Again
Rejoice over her, O heaven: Against three laments from earth stands one command from heaven, addressed to saints and apostles and prophets, whose blood was shed at 17:6 and 18:24. God has pronounced for you His judgment against her, and the vengeance is His, as Romans 12:19 says.
Revelation 18:20
“Rejoice over her, thou heaven - This is grand and sublime; the fall of this bad city was cause of grief to bad men. But as this city was a persecutor of the godly, and an enemy to the works of God, angels, apostles, and prophets are called to rejoice over her fall.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Revelation 18:20
“Rejoice over her, thou heaven - That is, all the inhabitants of it; and more especially, ye saints; and among the saints still more eminently, ye apostles and prophets.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
Revelation 18:20
“God was then avenging his people's cause. They had committed their cause to him to whom vengeance belongs, and now the year of recompence had come for the controversies of Zion; and, though they did not take pleasure in the miseries of any, yet they had reason to rejoice in the discoveries of the glorious justice of God. (2.) Because it was an irrecoverable ruin.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
the size of a great millstone: The mighty angel's act recalls Jeremiah 51:63-64, where a stone tied to a scroll was sunk in the Euphrates against the first Babylon. The great city of Babylon will be cast down, never to be seen again, and the Lord used a millstone's weight in Matthew 18:6.
Revelation 18:21
“And a mighty angel - See the notes on Rev 18:1. This seems, however, to have been a different angel from the one mentioned in Rev 18:1, though, like that, he is described as having great power. Took up a stone like a great millstone - On the structure of mills among the ancients see the notes on Mat 24:41. And cast it into the sea - As an emblem of the utter ruin of the city; an indication that the city would be as completely destroyed as that stone was covered by the waters.”
Revelation 18:22-23
the sound of harpists and musicians: The refrain in you again silences music, craft, the millstone, the lamp, and the voices of a bride and bridegroom. That silenced wedding stands opposite the marriage of the Lamb at 19:7. The cause is named last: all the nations were deceived by your sorcery.
Revelation 18:22
“The voice of harpers, etc. - This seems to indicate not only a total destruction of influence, etc., but also of being. It seems as if this city was to be swallowed up by an earthquake, or burnt up by fire from heaven.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The light of a lamp: Jeremiah 25:10 named the same losses against Judah before the exile, the bride and bridegroom, the millstone and the lamp. Babylon now receives the sentence Judah once received. Albert Barnes places the wedding voices in the street procession and in the new couple's home.
Revelation 18:23
“And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee - Another image of desolation, as if every light were put out, and there were total darkness. And the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee - The merry and cheerful voice of the marriage procession in the streets (notes on Mat 25:1-7), or the cheerful, glad voice of the newly-married couple in their own dwelling (notes on Joh 3:29).”
the blood of prophets and saints: The chapter ends on the charge of 17:6 and widens it to all who had been slain on the earth. The Lord laid the same reach of guilt on the leaders of His day at Matthew 23:35, from Abel onward.
Revelation 18:24
“In her was found the blood of prophets, etc. - She was the persecutor and murderer of prophets and of righteous men. And of all that were slain upon the earth - This refers to her counsels and influence, exciting other nations and people to persecute and destroy the real followers of God. There is no city to which all these things are yet applicable, therefore we may presume that the prophecy remains yet to be fulfilled.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Revelation 18:24
“And in her was found the blood of the prophets and saints - The same angel speaks still, yet he does not say "in thee," but in her, now so sunk as not to hear these last words. And of all that had been slain - Even before she was built. There is no city under the sun which has so clear a title to catholic blood-guiltiness as Rome.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
Revelation 18:24
“Applied by Christ (Mt 23:35) to apostate Jerusalem, which proves that not merely the literal city Rome, and the Church of Rome (though the chief representative of the apostasy), but the WHOLE of the faithless Church of both the Old and New Testament is meant by Babylon the harlot; just as the whole Church (Old and New Testament) is meant by "the woman" (Re 12:1).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
How this psalm is built
The form: A funeral lament over a fallen city, drawn in its expressions from the prophets' laments over Tyre, as Wesley classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| Woe, woe, and the single hour | Three companies stand at a distance and cry Woe, woe to the great city, the kings at verse 10, the merchants at verse 16 and the seamen at verse 19. Each lament ends on the words in a single hour. John Gill marks that the merchants use the same words as the kings and add the goods they traded in.John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748), on Revelation 18:16. | Revelation 18:10, Revelation 18:16, Revelation 18:19 |
| The cargo list | Verses 12 and 13 name twenty-nine goods in the Berean text, from gold and silver down to slaves and souls of men. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown send the reader to Ezekiel 27:13, where Tyre traded in the persons of men. The list descends from luxury to human beings.Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, on Revelation 18:13. | Revelation 18:12, Revelation 18:13 |
| The silenced city | Verses 21 to 23 say never again six times, over music, craft, the millstone, the lamp and the wedding. Bede reads the list as the senses taken from the world, what is beautiful to see and melodious to hear.Bede, Commentary on Revelation, on Revelation 18:22. | Revelation 18:21, Revelation 18:22, Revelation 18:23 |
| Earth mourns, heaven rejoices | The three laments of verses 9 to 19 are answered by one command at verse 20. Adam Clarke sets the two responses side by side: the fall was grief to bad men, and angels, apostles and prophets are called to rejoice because the city persecuted the godly.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, on Revelation 18:20. | Revelation 18:9, Revelation 18:20 |
Where the imagery comes from
9 more paragraphs on the patterns
Adam Clarke hears Isaiah 21:9 in the cry Fallen, fallen, and traces the call Come out of her to Isaiah 48:20 and Jeremiah 51:6 and 45 (Commentary on the Bible, on Revelation 18:2 and 18:4). Albert Barnes sets the sins piled up to heaven beside Jeremiah 51:9 (Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869), on Revelation 18:5).
The queen who says she is no widow speaks the boast of Isaiah 47:7 to 9. John Wesley traces most of the lament to Ezekiel's words over Tyre in Ezekiel 26 to 28, and John Gill finds the seamen's cry of verse 18 in Ezekiel 27:30 (Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament, on Revelation 18:19; Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748), on Revelation 18:18).
Where it sits in the book
The fall was first announced at 14:8, and at the seventh bowl God remembered Babylon, at 16:19. Chapter 17 showed the woman and the beast she rides, and this chapter shows her ruin. Albert Barnes notes that a new angel brings each of these messages, as at 14:6 to 18 (Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869), on Revelation 18:1). Heaven's answer follows at 19:1 to 5, where the Hallelujahs praise God for judging the great prostitute.
The debated concept: who Babylon is
Adam Clarke reports three identifications: pagan Rome, papal Rome and Jerusalem (Commentary on the Bible, on Revelation 18:2). John Wesley held for Rome, for no city had so clear a title to guilt for the blood of all who were slain on the earth (Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament, on Revelation 18:24). Jamieson, Fausset and Brown widen the harlot to the whole faithless church of both Testaments, since Christ applied the charge of verse 24 to Jerusalem (Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, on Revelation 18:24). Andreas of Caesarea allowed that the passage may depict the Babylon of the Persians (COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE 18:21-24).
The site reads the chapter as prophecy still to be fulfilled, a city and a system of the last days judged before the return of Christ in chapter 19. Clarke reached the same point by testing the other readings against history: neither pagan nor papal Rome was burned as verse 8 describes, and no city fits every line, so the prophecy remains to be fulfilled (Commentary on the Bible, on Revelation 18:8 and 18:24). The strongest objection is the first hearers' own Rome, and 1 Peter 5:13 shows the name was already in use for it. The futurist reading keeps Rome as the pattern and awaits the full fulfilment.
Where the New Testament touches it
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read verse 24 through Matthew 23:35, where Jesus charged Jerusalem with the righteous blood shed on the earth (Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, on Revelation 18:24). They link the word for luxury in verse 3 to the verb for growing wanton at 1 Timothy 5:11 (Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, on Revelation 18:3). Albert Barnes reads the silenced wedding voices of verse 23 beside the procession of Matthew 25:1 to 7 and the bridegroom's friend of John 3:29 (Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869), on Revelation 18:23).
Keep studying
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, on Revelation 18:2; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748), on Revelation 18:18 and John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament, on Revelation 18:19.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Andreas of Caesarea, COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE 18:6-8; Bede, Commentary on Revelation; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Oecumenius, Commentary on Revelation and Primasius of Hadrumetum, COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE 17:3.