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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - Revelation 18:2 - 18:2
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great (epesen, epesen Babulōn hē megalē). The very words of Rev 14:8 : “Did fall, did fall Babylon the great.” Prophetic aorists of piptō repeated like a solemn dirge of the damned.
Is become (egeneto). Prophetic aorist middle.
A habitation of devils (katoikētērion). Late word (from katoikeō, to dwell), in N.T. only here and Eph 2:22. Devils should be demons, of course. So Isaiah prophesied of Babylon (Isa 13:21-22) and also Jeremiah (Jer 50:39) and Zephaniah of Nineveh (Zep 2:14). Both Babylon and Nineveh are ruins.
A hold of every unclean spirit (phulakē pantos pneumatos akathartou). Phulakē is garrison or watch-tower as in Hab 2:1, rather than a prison (Rev 20:7).
A hold of every unclean and hateful bird (phulakē pantos orneou akathartou kai memisēmenou). Orneou is old word for bird, in N.T. only Rev 18:2; Rev 19:17, Rev 19:21. “The evil spirits, watching over fallen Rome like night-birds or harpies that wait for their prey, build their eyries in the broken towers which rise from the ashes of the city” (Swete). Long ago true of Babylon and Nineveh, some day to be true of Rome.