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Revelation 18:5

in Revelation 18

For her sins are piled up to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

for her sins have reached even unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.

KJV

For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.

This verse in Revelation 18

Commentary

11 notes on this verse
For her sins have reached unto heaven - So in Jer 51:9, speaking of Babylon, it is said, “For her judgment reacheth unto heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies.” The meaning is not that the sins of this mystical Babylon were like a mass or pile so high as to reach to heaven, but that it had become so prominent as to attract the attention of God. Compare Gen 4:10, “The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground.” See also Gen 18:

This site's exposition

Come out of her, My people

on 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.

This site's exposition

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.

The record, by era

The Church Fathers4 voices

A commentator

Caesarius of Arles

EXPOSITION ON THE APOCALYPSE 18:4, HOMILY 16 · Written before 542.

proposed

We see from this passage that Babylon is divided into two parts. For as long as God allows, the wicked are converted to the good, so that Babylon is divided, and that part that departs from it is the making of Jerusalem. For as long …

A commentator

Primasius of Hadrumetum

COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE 18:4 · Written before 560.

proposed

What the heavenly voice said was this, "Those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son," and, "The Lord knows those who are his," or something similar to this. There follows, "Come out of her, my people, lest …

A commentator

Jerome

LETTER 46.10-12 · Written before 420.

proposed

Of all the ornaments of the church our company of monks and virgins is one of the finest.… Let us pass now to the cottage inn that sheltered Christ and Mary.… The stall where he cried as a babe can best be honored by silence, for words are inadequate to speak its praise. Where are the spacious porticoes?

A commentator

Oecumenius

Commentary on Revelation · Written before 550.

proposed

For he says her sins have reached to heaven; as if to say that they even defiled the intervening air with their sins.

The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice

For her sins have reached unto heaven,....
3 more voices on this verse

The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

(3.) Those that are resolved to partake with wicked men in their sins must receive of their plagues. (4.) When the sins of a people reach up to heaven, the wrath of God will reach down to the earth. (5.) Though private revenge is forbidden, yet God will have his people act under him, when called to it, in pulling down his and their inveterate and implacable enemies,

The Nineteenth Century2 voices

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

proposed

her sins--as a great heap. reached--Greek, "reached so far as to come into close contact with, and to cleave unto."

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

proposed

Her sins have reached unto heaven - They are become so great and enormous that the long-suffering of God must give place to his justice.

The words behind it

15 Greek words

Every Greek word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Jonah 1:2

    “Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before Me.”

    it leads to

    • Genesis 18:20–21

      Then the LORD said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great. Because their sin is so grievous,

    • Genesis 10:11

      From that land he went forth into Assyria, where he built Nineveh, Rehoboth-Ir, Calah,

    • Isaiah 58:1

      “Cry aloud, do not hold back! Raise your voice like a ram’s horn. Declare to My people their transgression and to the house of Jacob their sins.

    • Nahum 1:1

      This is the burden against Nineveh, the book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite:

  • Through

    Ezra 9:6

    and said: “O my God, I am ashamed and embarrassed to lift up my face to You, my God, because our iniquities are higher than our heads, and our guilt has reached the heavens.

    it leads to

    • Psalms 38:4

      For my iniquities have overwhelmed me; they are a burden too heavy to bear.

  • Through

    Revelation 16:19

    The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed. And God remembered Babylon the great and gave her the cup of the wine of the fury of His…

    it leads to

    • Revelation 17:18

      And the woman you saw is the great city that rules over the kings of the earth.”

    • Revelation 18:21

      Then a mighty angel picked up a stone the size of a great millstone and cast it into the sea, saying: “With such violence the great city of Babylon will be cast down, never…

    • Revelation 18:10

      In fear of her torment, they will stand at a distance and cry out: “Woe, woe to the great city, the mighty city of Babylon! For in a single hour your judgment has come.”

Where this verse is studied

About Revelation

The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, Jan and Hubert van Eyck, about 1430 to 1432. Public domain.
The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, Jan and Hubert van Eyck, about 1430 to 1432. Public domain.
This page draws on 10 works. Open the list of works

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Caesarius of Arles, EXPOSITION ON THE APOCALYPSE 18:4, HOMILY 16; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, LETTER 46.10-12; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Oecumenius, Commentary on Revelation and Primasius of Hadrumetum, COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE 18:4.