Revelation18chapter 18

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."

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.