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Rev 18:2. Καὶ ἔκραξεν ἰσχύϊ φωνῇ μεγάλῃ λέγων) A noun of cognate signification is often added to a verb, for the sake of emphasis, in the Dative case, by the LXX. Ἀληθείᾳ ταπεινοῦν, βίᾳ ἀχθῆναι, βρώσει φαγεῖν, δάκρυσι κλαίειν, δεήσει λαλεῖν, θανάτῳ τελευτᾷν, θυμῷ ὀργίζεσθαι, ὀργῇ θυμοῦσθαι, μέτρῳ λαμβάνειν, σοφίᾳ ἀριθμεῖν, τόλμῃ ἐπικεῖσθαι, ὓβρει τρέχειν, ὕβρει φέρεσθαι, ὑπερόψει ὑπεριδεῖν, φόβῳ δειλιᾷν, φυγῇ πορεὑεσθαι, φωνῇ καλεῖν. See also Act 2:30; Eph 3:16; Php 1:18; 1Jn 3:18. So here κράζειν ἰσχύϊ, and Rev 18:21, ὁρμήματι βληθῆναι. Ἰσχύϊ itself is used absolutely, 2Ch 28:6, ἀνδρῶν δυνατῶν ἰσχύϊ.-ἔπεσεν ἔπεσε, is fallen, is fallen) Some MSS. and translators, ch. Rev 14:8, and here, put ἔπεσε, is fallen, once only[195]: and the one of these passages may appear to have been moulded so as to be in conformity with the other. Sometimes Epizeuxis (Append.) increases the emphasis; but Babylon is fallen, is fallen, is said in Isa 21:9, long before its fall; nay, even before its flourishing condition: Babylon is suddenly fallen, Jer 51:8, not long before its very overthrow. Therefore, if one reading is not to be followed in both passages of the Apocalypse, I would read it twice in the first passage, and once only in the second; almost in the same manner in which there are at first set forth three woes, afterwards two, and lastly one: so that, is fallen, is fallen, expresses an overthrow gradually coming on; is fallen, expresses an overthrow sudden, total, and final. For once for all [at once] is often the same as entirely: Num 20:8; 1Sa 26:8. But the copyists not unfrequently wrote once only words which ought to have been written twice: and ἔπεσεν ἔπεσε is found in many copies at ch. Rev 16:8, and ch. Rev 18:2. It is plain, that the actual overthrow is not now to be here understood, but that it is a prophecy respecting the overthrow which is certainly and quickly about to follow; for in Rev 18:4, and not until then, the people of God are commanded to go forth. But the people of God are not those whose pastor is the Roman Pontiff, as some one has wished to wrest the Apocalypse. It is said, My people, not the people of the Roman Pontiff; as Act 18:10, the Lord is said to have much people in the city of Corinth, without any particular reference to Paul or any other pastor there.[196]
[195] B and Memph. omit the second ἔπεσεν. But A Vulg. and Rec. Text retain it: so Lachm. and Tisch.-E.
[196] Κατοικητήριον the habitation) This had not yet been added, ch. Rev 14:8.-V. g.