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Rev_18:1-24.
SYNOPTICAL VIEW.
A strong Angel, who descends from Heaven to earth, comes upon her. His strength is signalized by the fact that the earth is lighted up by his glory. There is but one enlightenment for the earth—viz., the light of the gospel; but there is a distinction between the stage of apostolic embassage, that of reformatory confession, dogma and cultus, and this spiritual day-light of evangelic truth—appropriated by all good spirits,—which, in Divine-human beauty, in Christian humanity, finally, as in one instant, extends from land to land, and illumines the fallen Woman in all her hate-fulness, thus executing upon her the ideal judgment and denouncing (Rev_18:2-3) the first real judgment, which appears as a self-judgment of the great Babylon in her internal relations. The ideal judgment is the heavenly proclamation of her fall, loudly promulgated through the earth. Fallen! fallen! is the judicial cry of Heaven. The fall agrees in greatness with the height which she claimed as Babylon the Great (see Isaiah 14).
First Fundamental Form of the Actual Judgment. Revelation of the Inner Judgment of the Fallen Church [Rev_18:2-3].
She has become a habitation or dwelling-place of demons;—does not this, considered in the light of Heaven, signify a sort of Hell on earth? A watch-tower [hold] of all manner of unclean spirits;—does not this mean a concentration of the most diverse evil motives and egoistical characters? A coop or poultry-yard [hold] of all unclean and hated birds;—does not this mean a gathering-place of all volatile minds, intent upon the prey of earthly profits? (See Mat_13:32.) The Spirit of prophecy has indicated a firm and exclusive organization by a three-fold term: a fixed habitation, a watch-tower, a secure receptacle for birds. It is true that öõëáêÞ , in both instances of its occurrence, may be significant of a prison; this term would not here have been applicable to the demons. The cause of this destruction of Babylon is the wine of the anger [or rage] of her fornication, i. e., the riotous enthusiasm of her anger [rage] or fanaticism in favor of her idolatries, her deifications of all sorts. Of this wine she has given to all nations to drink, and has intoxicated them more or less, instead of truly sobering them for the milk of the Gospel and wholesome nourishment, in accordance with the reiterated instructions of the Apostles Peter and Paul (1Pe_1:13; 1Pe_4:7; 1Pe_5:8; 1Co_15:34; 1Th_5:6; 1Th_5:8; 1Ti_3:2; 1Ti_3:11; Tit_2:2; 2Ti_2:26). In distinction from this popular fanaticism, the kings of the earth, with the political consciousness of refined worldly-mindedness, have committed fornication with her—have deified her, permitted themselves to be deified by her, and shared all manner of other deifications with her. Another pernicious effect is that the merchants, i. e., those speculators of earth who are bent upon mammon, have become rich through her luxury. The very one who should equalize earthly relations by the spirit of Christian brotherliness [i. e., the Church], has, by self-deification and the deification of earthly powers, brought to a culmination that false pomp and love of magnificence by which the normal distinction of rich and poor has been perverted into unnatural and pernicious extremes of luxury and pauperism. The poisoning of popular life, of politics, of social ordinances—such is the three-fold and yet unitous effect of her three principal sins: [1] the presentation of the wine of anger [or rage (see Notes 5, p. 318; and 16, p. 274).—E. R. C.]; [2] seduction to fornication; [3] luxurious external show.
Second Judgment. Social Judgment of Separation between the People of God and the City of Babylon (Rev_18:4-5).
This separation is brought about by the command of a voice from the Heaven. Whilst the Angel who descended from Heaven has executed the judgment of the Spirit of truth, this voice comes from the height of Heaven, and, as appears from the context, from the judgment-throne of God Himself. The exode of the people of God from fellowship with Babylon, not only brings her internal judgment to view, but also serves as an introduction to the external judgment, because it is itself the dynamical social judgment. Thus must Noah go forth from the antediluvian race that had incurred the judgment of God; thus Lot must depart from Sodom; thus Israel, from Egypt; thus the primitive Christians, from fallen Jerusalem; and so on. This exode, which includes within itself the abrogation of all relations of religious fellowship, is demanded by truth, by righteousness, by fidelity to the Lord. Thus believers execute the minor ban in just reaction against the great ban, and the Church finally goes forth from the Church, in order that it may continue to be the Church (Heb_13:13). The conservation of human relations of duty will come out all the more clearly, the more the religious and moral errors of a false humanism are discarded in pure and strict freedom of spirit. This exode also becomes necessary, however, for the self-preservation of believing souls, as is declared by the warning: That ye partake not in her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. How easily an accompliceship in guilt originates through implication in the sins of others, the Old Testament has typically demonstrated in the institution of the sin-offering (Leviticus 5), as well as in many historical occurrences (Joshua 7.). The modern world’s sensorium for these mysterious relations of guilt is much enfeebled. Even an entrance into the heritage of the heaviest ancient blood-debts is performed by many with as little misgiving as if they were stepping into a child’s room pervaded with the breath of innocence, or even into a temple of pure spirit, pervaded with spirit-breath. The judgment of God, however, must be executed, because the sins of the City do not simply cry unto Heaven, like the sins of Sodom (Genesis 18), but they have become interlinked with each other and tower up upon each other even to Heaven, until they have become a demonic offence against the very Throne of God. Hence, God has become mindful of her iniquities—not simply of the last and newest, but of the entire series of them. The culmination of these iniquities has—humanly speaking—again made present to Him the whole history of their development, and with these words, the conclusion of His refraining long-suffering and the dawn of His infliction of judgment are expressed. At the basis of the expression in our passage lies a reference to the history of Sodom, the more obviously since here, also, a fiery judgment is at hand.
Third Judgment. The Recompense of Babylon (Rev_18:6-8).
The command to execute the judgment of retribution is not, like the preceding words, addressed to the people of God, as has been supposed in accordance with the reading of minuscules: as she rewarded [rendered to] you. But neither is the command addressed to the Angels of the plagues, as Bleek supposes, for this retribution is, according to Rev_17:16, to be executed by the Ten Horns and the Beast. The same judgment which, in the chapter cited, is spoken of as to be accomplished by them, is mentioned here, again, in Rev_18:8. The address is to those to whom she has presented the cup (Mat_7:6). De Wette with justice remarks: A challenge to the executioners of the penal judgment. ̓ Áðïäéäüíáé has at its second occurrence the meaning of the Hebrew ðָîַì . It shall be done to her as she has done to others. This is the law of historic retribution which runs through the whole of the Sacred Writings (see Rev_13:10). It shall, moreover, be recompensed double to her. As repentance has a double value in proportion to the punishment which preceded it (Isa_40:2), so the guilt which is heaped up for the Day of Wrath has, similarly, a double value in reference to the succeeding punishment. So, in particular, the cup of the wine of anger is to be filled double for her. At the time of judgment, negative fanaticism falls, with double fury, upon the guilt of positive fanaticism.—But not simply the torments which she has inflicted upon men are to be recompensed to her, but also her self-glorification and arrogant ostentation are to be punished, in a corresponding degree, with torment and sorrow. The heavenly voice also gives the ground of this severe sentence. For, even now in the hour of judgment, she, hardened and without a foreboding of approaching ill, gives utterance in her heart to her false security thus: I sit [Lange: am enthroned as] a queen, and a widow I am not (comp. Luk_18:3;—not the Church that misses her heavenly Christ on earth), and sorrow I shall not see. This obduracy is the motive which doubles her guilt and punishment. Therefore, also, shall her plagues come in one day—i. e., she does not gradually sink into ruin, but she plunges into it in one grand historic catastrophe. The plagues branch out into the number of the world, the worldly number of completeness, four: Death, mourning [sorrow], hunger, fire. Death, doubtless, should not be interpreted as the death of her children (Düsterdieck), but as a presentiment of ruin which now comes over her. With this death, her egoistic lamentations correspond, amid which, again, her hunger after world-empire is augmented to fury, whilst the fire of judgment is already coming upon her. These plagues now attack her with inevitable certitude, for God has already commenced to judge her ( ὁ êñßíáò ), and He is mighty in His judgments, which He executes through the medium of mighty earthly powers.
Hereupon the heavenly voice denounces a simultaneous judgment upon those classes which have mingled with Great Babylon and involved themselves in her guilt; representing them as mourners over the fallen one (Rev_18:9-20).
The unitous idea of these lamentations lies in the premise that the mock-holy City has her sympathies, her roots, in the worldliness of the world, especially the great world; that she has, however, brought this world, which it was her duty to convert to God, itself to the brink of perdition. For she has made self-deification, the titanic glorification of her own dignity and authority, the centre of all corruption. She has thereby induced the kings or potentates of the earth to push their authority also to a degree exceeding a right human measure, to exchange reciprocal deifications with her and either in pride to compete with her, or to make fellowship with her. Thus have been formed the spheres of a morbid luxury, far exceeding the measure of morality, and as the merchants of the earth, or the organs of this luxury, have attained to a colossal and morbid greatness, so, likewise, have their riches reached a corresponding grandeur. Even wholesale trade, in the most extensive sense of the term, or supermarine intercourse of the world with the world, has been drawn into this great vortex of feverish worldliness. Thus the most thorough men of the world, far and wide, have lived and sinned with Great Babylon, and are most profoundly shaken and discomfited by her fall. But they care not to share her lot with her; they are faithless to her in her hour of need. The kings stand afar off for the fear of her torment (Rev_18:10). The merchants stand afar off for the fear of her torment (Rev_18:15). The sea-farers and marine traders stand afar off and cry (Rev_18:17). Doubtless, together with the ideas of their participation in her guilt, their grief, and their cowardly desertion of their mistress, there is likewise expressed the fact that Great Babylon is involved in a tremendous conflagration, which illuminates the whole earth, which admits of no remedy, which none dare approach, which, however, is visible from the remotest spots—so far, at least, as its pillar of smoke is concerned—holding all spectators spellbound with fear and amazement. It might be queried: why the great detailedness of the description, especially of articles of luxury (Rev_18:12-14)? Here we encounter the same masterly skill of the prophetic spirit which is displayed by Isaiah in his portrayal of the luxury of the Hebrew women (Isaiah 3). For the worldly mind, this very detail of articles of pomp and pleasure is of supreme importance; the prophecy, therefore, ironically enters into this mode of view—the more, since for Babylon every particle of her pleasure becomes a particle of torment. It is, further, characteristic that the kings shall weep and passionately and loudly lament ( êüðôåóèáé ) over the fall of Babylon, yet shall hold themselves aloof even at the ascending of the smoke from the beginning conflagration. That which caused them to become worshippers of the City, were the greatness and (magic) power of it. The merchants of the earth weep also; their sorrow, however, takes the form of mourning for the loss which has assailed them. Together with the greatness of the City, its magnificence and wealth have dazzled them. The sea-farers express their mourning for Babylon most passionately, in accordance with their life on the water; they were enchained by the incomparableness of the City and the great gain which it brought them.
The first lament is that of the kings of the earth; not the kings as such, but those rulers who, by the aid of the Hierarchy, have despotically governed, and, to enable them thus to do, have worked into the hands of the Hierarchy, being, therefore, bearers of a reciprocal deification.
The heavenly voice describes the lament of the merchants most comprehensively. The splendor of the merchandise of the City is expatiated upon, as consisting of: (1) Precious things [metals, jewels] and splendid stuffs; (2) Costly material (fragrant citron [thyine-] wood) and costly vessels of precious stuffs of all sorts; (3) Spices, ointments, incense; (4) Delicious articles of enjoyment and nourishment; (5) Articles of a princely household, from draught-cattle and flocks of sheep to the souls of slaves—or slavish souls, which are the permanent fundamental condition of every Babylonish power. It might be thought strange that after all this, mention is made of delicious fruit, and that here the enumeration passes into the form of an address to Babylon itself; but in this region the smallest thing is in many respects the greatest, and, moreover, a special category of gastronomical delicacies is in point—those, particularly, which belong to a princely dessert. Whilst the kings designated the great disaster of one hour, the catastrophe, as a judgment upon Babylon, the merchants lament that in one hour the great wealth of luxury in which Babylon arrayed herself, is destroyed.
Still more openly do the sea-farers express their egoistical interest in their cry of woe and lamentation for Great Babylon.
After this fore-description of the special judgments which, with the fall of Babylon, come upon her companions, the judgment upon Babylon herself is represented in a symbolic act.
The heavenly voice replies to all the unworthy lamentations of earth with a cry of exultation. All those who long ago pronounced the spiritual sentence of Babylon’s lost state, without its appearing that their sentence was of any value in the actual world, are exhorted to rejoice. Now their sentence is ratified by the judgment of God. For such is the meaning of the passage; reference is not again had to the false judgment which they have previously experienced from Babylon, for how would such a reference be applicable to Heaven? Babylon has been judged from of old: 1. By the Heaven in general, the whole ideal world of God; 2. By the Saints, and 3. By the Apostles—nay, 4. Even before them, by the Prophets of the Old Covenant.
Next follows the symbolic representation of the final consummation of the judgment. A strong Angel takes up a stone, like a great millstone, and casts it into the sea, making this act, the violent casting of the stone, the great whirlpool occasioned by it, and the precipitate sinking of the stone, a symbol of the imminent, sudden and violent reprobation of Babylon. The Angel, because he is a fore-runner of the close Parousia of Christ, is conceived of as a personal being (see Rev_19:9-10); his action, however, is thoroughly symbolical. The allegorical symbol gains in expressiveness, it becomes typical, if we consider that the sea denotes the life of the nations, that the millstone is already familiar as the instrument of punishment for offence given (Mat_18:6), that, finally, the proclamation of the strong Angel, in connection with his action, is expressive of the surest certainty of the Spirit of God in His Church. The judgment upon Babylon superinduces a great agitation in the sea of nations. This agitation is occasioned by a great stone of stumbling or most flagrant offence given by Babylon to the world, in particular to the “little ones;” and it is the Angel of the Christian faith who has in this world awakened the consciousness of the life of the nations in respect of this offence, as is expressed by the fore-runner of Christ from the other world, one, in angelic form, of the glorified ones who shall appear with Christ. The City, as Great Babylon, is destroyed; as a ruin, as a desert place, she continues, for a memorial of terror. Hence the Angel describes her imminent desolation, not simply in order to intimate that her own destruction is illustrated by the destruction of her glory. This has been previously declared. The design is, rather, to sketch the desolation of the ruin of this spiritual Babylon in negative traits, even as Isaiah depicted the desolation of the ancient Asiatic Babylon in positive traits. No musical sound from any festivity can be heard any more in the deathly stillness of Babylon. Not a single artist of any art can be found any more in the desert of her ruins. No sound of a mill betrays a trace of business or domestic life; no light of a candle occasions the inference of life or of a social circle; with the voice of bridegroom and bride, every festal presage of a future laden with new life has vanished. And now again, to conclude the picture, the grounds for the judgment are laid before us—viz.: Babylon’s double guilt. On the one hand, she has fully corrupted the corrupt world. For the great of the earth, the possessors of power, were her merchants, i. e., the agents and abettors of her affairs ( ïἱ ἔìðïñïé is the predicate, according to Eichhorn; see also Ebrard). Note well the distinction. The ἔìðïñïé ôῆò ãῆò (Rev_18:3) have become rich through the Woman; the ìåãéóôᾶíåò ôῆò ãῆò have become the ἔìðïñïß óïõ , i. e., of the Woman. [See Text. and Gram., Note 24, Rev_18:23.—E. R. C.] Her love of magnificence has driven luxury to its acme, and converted the dealers in it into great lords; it is still worse, however, that she has made the great of the earth agents of her interests. It was her fault that the merchants could in many cases become barons and princes—that the princes could in many cases become merchants [Krämer], e. g., of indulgences, hierarchical stocks, and the like. Thus she has instituted a reciprocal action between egoistical mammon-service and egoistical power. The nations have been led astray by her sorceries of all sorts. Thus she has seduced the world in its great and little ones. Of the kernel of the Church, however—the Prophets and Saints—not the living images, but the bloody traces of martyrdom, were found in her. The Angel, truly, seems to conclude his accusation in a very hyperbolical manner. Is the blood of all who have been slain on earth to be placed to the account of Babylon? We might say: Undoubtedly it is, inasmuch as, at the day of reckoning, Babylon forms the centre of all human guilt and blood-guiltiness. The choice of the verb, however, constitutes a very important item for consideration. ÓöÜæåéí , the verb in question, denotes; at least in a predominant degree, slaying from a religious point of view; here, therefore, are indicated the slain upon the earth who have been slain as sacrifices to fanaticism in general, and especially in the religious wars and religious criminal courts of earth. The centre of these specific crimes is Babylon; it is manifest, however, that Babylon is not here intended simply as a local centre, for the like blood-guiltinesses make their appearance sporadically all over Christendom—though, indeed, always as fanatical radii, having a fanatical centre.
By the American Editor.
Barnes: This chapter is a still further explanatory episode designed to show the effect of the pouring out of the seventh Vial (Rev_16:17-21) upon the Antichristian power; the description is that of a rich merchant-city reduced to desolation, and is but carrying out the general idea under a different form. We have—(1) the angelic descent and proclamation, Rev_18:1-3; (2) a warning to the people of God to be partakers neither of her sins nor plagues, accompanied by a description of the latter, Rev_18:4-8; (3) lamentation over her fall—by those who had been, (a) connected with her, (b) corrupted by her, (c) profited by her, Rev_18:9-19; (4) rejoicing over her fall, Rev_18:20; (5) the final (and total) destruction, Rev_18:21-24. (Whilst this writer regards the Papacy, and not the city of Rome, as the object specially contemplated by the prophecy, he thinks it possible that there may be a literal fulfillment of the prophecy burned with fire, Rev_18:8, in the destruction of the city as in order to the destruction of the power; for quotations tending to support this view, see the preceding foot-note. For special comments, see Explanations in Detail in loc.)
Stuart: In his Introduction to Revelation 17, this commentator remarks: “Before any attack was made upon the Kingdom of the Beast, an Angel proclaimed the fall of great Babylon (i. e., ‘persecuting and pagan Rome’), Rev_14:8. This, however, was only in general terms. But now the seventh Vial has been poured out, and the city has been shaken to its very foundation, and thus a ruinous state of things has already commenced, Rev_16:17-21. Final and utter extinction, however, still remains to be achieved. Accordingly an Angel next appears, and not only renews the proclamation of the fall of Babylon, but describes this in such terms as necessarily to imply its utter ruin.”
Wordsworth: “Fuller description of the future fall of the Mystical Babylon. It is to be carefully observed that though Babylon falls, the Beast still remains. Therefore, the fall of Papal Rome will not be the destruction of the Papacy.”
Alford: Chaps. Rev_18:1 to Rev_19:10 relate to the Destruction of Babylon. I. Announcement of the destruction (Rev_18:1-3). II. Warning to God’s people to leave her on account of the greatness of her crimes and coming judgments (4–8). III. Lamentations over her on the part of those who were enriched by her, by (1) the kings of the earth (9, 10); (2) the merchants (11–16); (3) the shipmasters, etc. (17–19). IV. The calling of the heavens and God’s holy ones to rejoice over her (20). V. Symbolic proclamation of Babylon’s ruin (21–24).
Lord: The Angel of Rev_18:1 symbolizes a body of men who shall with resistless light unveil the Apostate character of Babylon (i. e., the nationalized hierarchies, see pp. 310 sq.). The fall of Babylon is her dejection from her nationalized position; it is to be (1) in consequence of her idolatry, Rev_18:3; (2) followed by (a) her becoming the resort of the most detestable of (human) beings, Rev_18:2, (b) another proclamation by another body of men calling upon those true Christians who remain in her to come out of her, Rev_18:4; (3) effected (a) violently, Rev_18:21; (b) by the multitude, and not by the kings and great men who are to mourn over it, Rev_18:9-19. The fall is to be distinguished from the punishment (plagues); the latter is speedily and suddenly to follow the former, Rev_18:4-6. The destruction is to be entire, Rev_18:21-24.
Glasgow: Rev_18:1 introduces an account of what accompanies or follows close upon the full effusion of the seventh Vial. The Angel of Rev_18:1 is the Holy Ghost, who announces the coming fall of Babylon, i. e., the Roman State; the voice of Rev_18:4 is that of Christ. By the kings of Rev_18:9-10, the traffickers of Rev_18:11-16, the mariners of Rev_18:17-19, are indicated the three parts into which the City is divided (Rev_16:19); “as ancient Babylon exists now only in the palace of her kings, the temple of Belus, and the tower of Nimrod, so over the fall of the mystic city are heard the wailings of superstitious rulers in the palace, of trafficking priests of simony in their cathedrals, and of far-travelled colonizers and missionaries, propagators of her errors.”
Auberlen: “The judgment on the Harlot (i. e., Babylon—the apostate Church) is described more minutely in its various aspects (Rev_18:1; Rev_19:5), first by an Angel having great authority; then by another voice from Heaven (Rev_18:4-20); after this, thirdly, by a strong Angel (21–24); and this is succeeded by great voices of much people in heaven (Rev_19:1-5), who praise God for, the judgment executed.—E. R. C.]
Rev_18:1. Another Angel.—A symbolic angelic form, suggestive of Michael, not precisely Christ (Calov., Hengst.), for the Parousia is not to come until after this. The Holy Ghost (Vitringa), however, is no angel of external events, and Luther’s embassage did at least not bring Babylon with violence to her fall. Historically defined, Christianity, in a new, glorious, and therefore mightily efficacious phase of development, must be understood by the Angel. Hence alone is his glory to be explained, which lights up the whole earth. A couple of wretched and disorderly negations can, of course, not be intended by this.
Rev_18:2. Fallen, fallen.—A certain future, which shall some day become both present and past. The cry of Rev_14:8 is reflected here; that, however, applied to the universal Babylon. In the first place, doubtless, the complete spiritual fall of Babylon is intended, as is manifest from the context: and is become, etc. But along with the complete spiritual fall, her historic fall is also decided. According to Düsterdieck, indeed, the words: a habitation of demons, etc., already denote external desolation, like the description Isa_13:22. Similarly Hengstenberg, vol. 2, p. 268. Düsterd. even regards it as singular that Ebrard should yet understand the birds “spiritually.” A naïve “yet!” According to Bengel, the “unclean spirits” are departed souls, and “this passage very clearly treats of such spirits as, when they appear to the living, are called ghosts.” The reverend divine would, however, surely not transfer Babylon to Wurtemberg! According to Hengstenberg, [also Stuart and Alford,—E. R. C.], the öõëáêÞ denotes a prison—thus: a prison of unclean spirits and unclean birds. The expression, however, when used with reference to a fallen city, is applicable neither to spirits nor to birds. “The law of their essential character banishes them thither.” To the desert of pagan Rome? This would be the worst that could possibly be affirmed of Christian Rome! In respect of the birds, Hengstenberg cites Psa_102:6; Isa_13:21-22; Isaiah 34 [11, 13] 14 [15]; Jer_50:39; Zep_2:14.
Rev_18:3. For … of the wine, etc.—This is the offence which is judged primarily by a falling under the dominion of demonic powers. Babylon has offended against three classes of men—the nations, the kings, and a middle class, the merchants of the earth. We must again distinguish these merchants of the earth from the specific merchants whom the Woman has raised up for herself from the great of the earth (Rev_18:23, see Syn. View). If we examine the arrangements of the Seer, we shall find that he has a more general and a more special arrangement. The more general one distinguishes between the kings, or the mighty of the earth, and the nations. The Woman has seduced the former to the fornication of world-deification, and intoxicated the latter with the rage-wine of fanaticism, according to Rev_17:2; Rev_18:23. The more special arrangement inserts a third class, the merchants of the earth, a transition-form between the kings and the nations, in which the money-agents can become money-princes, and the princes agents of the Woman. But again, the class of mercantile people is, in our chapter, sub-divided into two classes, viz.: [1] the eminent merchants, who, as immediate servants of the Woman, participate in her luxury, and [2] the ordinary trades people of the world, here designated by sea-farers, whose interests are likewise, in a more general sense, involved in the luxury of the Woman. It was clear to the Seer that the super-human exaggeration of magnificence, the pomp of world-seeking in the heart of mankind, in the very place whence the forces of world-renunciation, simplicity and simple culture, should go forth, would place the whole organism of worldly life in a condition of morbid bloatedness, and feverishly egoistic agitation. [See Note 16 on chap. 14, p. 274.—E. R. C.]
From the power (or influence) [Lange: mighty operation], etc.—According to Düsterdieck (with Grot, et al.), ἐê ôῆò äõíÜìåùò ôïῦ óôñÞíéõò “refers to the vast wealth [gewaltige Vermögen] of the City, employed in the service of luxury.” This would, undoubtedly, be more applicable to pagan than to Christian Rome. Be it well remembered, however, that the “world kingdom” did not become rich through the “world city,” but vice versâ. It is also better, from philological considerations, to regard äýíáìéò as the mighty operation of that central luxury. The interpretation: On account of her powerful luxuriousness (De Wette), really involves an obliteration äýíáìéò . [“ Äýíáìéò , copia, as Vitringa, who remarks, ‘alluditur ad Hebræam voce çéì , cujus hæc significationis vis est. Job_31:5; Eze_28:4.’ We have ðëïýôïõ ìåãÜëïõ äýíáìéí in Jos.: Antt. III. 2. 4.” Alford.—E. R. C.]
Rev_18:4. Another voice from the Heaven.—It is noteworthy that the voice from Heaven, speaking from Rev_18:4-20, is interposed between the two mighty Angels of Rev_18:1 and Rev_18:21. In the two Angels, we behold the denouncer and the executioner of God’s judgment upon Babylon, as that judgment appears on earth; in the voice from Heaven, we find the cry of the Church Triumphant—the Church not simply in the other World, but also in this world,—addressed to the Church of God on earth. For whilst there is, in the Church on earth, in respect of its individual members, a constant wavering between premature separation from Babylon (by which name even the evangelical Church is designated by sectarian spirits) and a tardy tarrying in the communion of a true Babylon, aggravated by manifold fanatical lapses into the captivitas Babylonica, there resides in the heavenly Church the true sense for the determining of the hour of need when the general exode from Babylon before the judgment shall be as necessary as the exode of the Christians of John’s time from Jerusalem to Pella. Too early a departure is opposed to humility and love; too late a departure is hostile to faith and fidelity; both acts, that of precipitancy and that of undue delay, are a fanatical opposition to the truth. According to Bengel, the voice from Heaven is the voice of God or Christ, against which Düsterdieck judiciously remarks that such an origin does not accord with the descriptive tone of its discourse. Mediately, of course, every angelic and every heavenly voice is to be referred to God and Christ.
Come forth out of her, my people.—This can refer only to the complete rupture of religious and churchly fellowship. If we regard the words as having reference to an external departure of the Christians from Rome, all Christian Rome would be a contravention of the heavenly voice. [“In Isa. (Isa_48:20; Isa_52:11) the circumstances differed, in that being a joyful exodus, this a cautionary one: and thus the warning is brought nearer to that one which our Lord commands in Mat_24:16, and the cognate warnings in the O. T., viz., that of Lot to come out of Sodom, Gen_19:15-22, when her destruction impended, and that of the people of Israel to get them up from the tents of Dathan and Abiram, Num_16:23-26. In Jer. (Jer_50:8; Jer_51:6; Jer_51:9; Jer_51:45) we have the same circumstance of Babylon’s impending destruction combined with the warning; and from those places probably, especially Jer_51:45, the words here are taken. The inference has been justly made from them (Elliott IV., pp. 44 sq.), that there shall be even to the last, saints of God in the midst of Rome; and that there will be danger of their being, through a lingering fondness for her, partakers of her coming judgment.” Alford.—E. R. C.] See Jer_51:6; Jer_51:9; Jer_51:45.
That ye partake not in her sins.—See Gen_19:15. This fellowship of sins is to be understood in a peculiar sense as a fellowship in guilt—a view which Düsterdieck combats, but which finds its sufficient explanation in the distinction between the Biblical ideas of sin (Sünde) and guilt [Schuld=reatus]. A fellowship of sins, in the narrower sense (Luthardt), is as little intended as a fellowship in punishment for sins (Düsterd.) is exclusively meant. A guiltless participation in punishment would certainly be akin to propitiatory suffering. Fellowship with the sinner, however, on an equal moral footing, without the re-action of discipline, chastisement, excommunication, is fellowship in his guilt. Hence the ðëçãáß are not simply strokes; they are deserved [verschuldete] strokes (see Joshua 7; Num_16:21-24).
[“It is implied here that by remaining in Babylon they would lend their sanction to its sins by their presence, and would, in all probability, become contaminated by the influence around them.” Barnes.—E. R. C.]
Rev_18:5. For her sins have heaped together unto the Heaven.—See Syn. View.
Rev_18:6-7. Render unto her.—See Syn. View. Address to those injured by Babylon, as such. [Should we not rather, with Alford, regard these words as “addressed to the executioners of judgment?”—E. R. C.] With the double measure, the qualitative retribution is expressed in quantitative form. See Syn. View. Comp. Isa_40:2. The expressions äéðëþóáôå , äéðëᾶ , äéðëïῦí , are, therefore, not simply “rhetorical.” The consummation of her punishment is furnished with a three-fold motive, being the punishment (1) Of her evil deeds against the suffering party generally; (2) Of the cup, in particular—by which we are here to understand the cup of bitterness; (3) Of her self-glorification and pride, which involved a like measure of humiliation and oppression for the sufferers. For she saith in her heart.—Even now; so unforebodingly secure is she in face of the signs of the times. A queen.—Isa_47:7. And a widow I am not.—A widow in the more general sense, as one deserted. See Isa_47:8-9. Neither is she a bride or a wife any more, but a polyandria. Sorrow I shall not see.—Sorrow, particularly, for her many daughters (which, of course, are not the cities and peoples subject to pagan Rome). Thus she also regards herself as elevated above the universal law of earthly vicissitude, elevated above historic dooms.
[These expressions, in addition to reasons presented in Add. Comm. on Rev_17:18, and Add. Note, p. 317, identify the objective of Babylon with that of the Harlot. As in Revelation 17, where the main figure was the Harlot, a portion of the symbolization was drawn from the City,—so here, where the main figure is Babylon, a portion of the symbolization is taken from the Woman.—E. R. C.]
Rev_18:8. Therefore shall her plagues come in one day.—Precisely therefore ( ìָëֵï ). In antithesis to her pride. Death.—Since death can not come upon her twice, and since the death of her children is expressed by sorrow or mourning [Rev_18:7], the term doubtless embraces the death-doom in general, coming upon her primarily as a presentiment of ruin, and then developing into mourning, hunger, and fiery death. In one day—in one great catastrophe (see Isa_47:9).[Without succession through a protracted period—all-together.—E. R. C.] For strong.—The whole omnipotence of God opposes itself in judgment to the haughtiness of Babylon, and this judgment has already begun ( êñßíáò ). The whole Providence of God executes the judgment of the Lord, for it is as such that God has primarily to do with Babylon.
Rev_18:9-10. And there shall weep and wail over her.—In Rev_18:9-20 [19] are presented the three laments over Babylon, in which the three classes associated in her guilt appear, in antithesis to the people of God, as sharers in the stroke which has fallen upon her. They represent the peripheries of the judgment, forming about its centre. Comp. Ezekiel 26, 27. The kings of the earth.—Düsterdieck rightly discards the view of Hengstenberg, who finds in the ïὐáß , ïὐáß a reference to “double to her double.” Highly significant is the kings’ standing afar Off: they will not be burned up with her, for their friendship with Babylon was based upon egoism. They must, however, together with her, be afflicted by the stroke which has descended upon her. Their lamentation is expressive of two things—on the one hand, that they have been dazzled by the grandeur and power of Babylon, and on the other, that they are aware of her guilt, for they speak of her judgment, although they do not come to the penitent consciousness that they have committed fornication and lived luxuriously with her.
[Standing afar off.—“The general sentiment here is that in the final ruin of Papal Rome the kings and governments that had sustained her, and had been sustained by her, would see the source of their power taken away, but that they would not, or could not, attempt her rescue. There have been not a few indications already that this will ultimately occur, and that the Papal power will be left to fall without any attempt on the part of those governments which have been so long in alliance with it, to sustain or restore it.” Barnes.—E. R. C.]
Rev_18:11. And the merchants of the earth.—Second lamentation. Here, egoism is more plainly visible. They weep and sorrow because no one will buy their merchandise any more. The vividness of the description is also augmented by the picturesque present: they weep, etc., and no less, by the circumstantiality with which their merchandise, the entire exposition of their secularized industry, is described (see Syn. View). No one buyeth their lading any more.—That is, the fall of Babylon is accompanied by a thorough contempt for all splendor and luxury; it ushers in the fashion of simplicity.
Rev_18:12-16. The wares are arranged in order (see Syn. View). “The alternation of accusatives and genitives dependent on ôὸí ãüìïí , prevailing till the close of Rev_18:13, may serve as explanatory of the dubious construction found in Rev_14:4” (Düsterd.). The fact that the vision draws the picture of these articles of luxury from the view of antiquity—of ancient Rome for instance—proves nothing for the import of Babylon. On the individual articles comp. the Lexicons. Special consideration, as less known, is demanded by the îýëïí èýúïí , ἄìùìïí , ὀðþñá . The distinction, óþìáôá and øõ÷áὶ ἀíèñþðùí , is noted by commentators and differently explained (see Düsterdieck, p. 527); the distinction, at all events, is not a very sharp one, and the second expression is indicative of an augmentation, the extreme consequence of slave-holding. The renewal of these circumstances, even in Christian Babylon, is well known. The strong emphasis laid at the end upon the missing of the favorite fruit is highly characteristic as an ironical trait. It is well known that fallen great men often grieve most for the loss of the veriest trifles. Conjoined with these delicacies in the way of fruit, are all sorts of delicious things; “ ôὰ ëéðáñÜ , literally the fat, but its conjunction with ôὰ ëáìðñÜ admonishes us to take the expression in the usual unliteral sense (Isa_30:23; comp. Hesych., who explains ëéð . as êáëüí , ἔëáöñïí ), with Luther, Bengel, Hengstenberg” (Düsterd.). There seems, however, to be a distinction made between articles of gastronomic and æsthetic taste.
Rev_18:15. The merchants of these things.—Here the style changes again from a vivid presentation of the Babylonish world-mart to the prophetic future. These merchants [Kaufleute] also bemoan the City in a characteristic manner. For them, the greatness of the City consisted, not, as for the kings, in her power, but in her outward splendor, her beauty of attire.
[Rev_18:11-16. “The description … is perhaps drawn, in its poetic and descriptive features, from the relation of Rome to the world that then was, rather than from its relation at the future time depicted in the prophecy. But it must not for a moment be denied that the character of this lamentation throws a shade of obscurity over the interpretation, otherwise so plain from the explanation given in Rev_17:18 (viz., ‘that the prophecy regards Rome pagan and papal, but from the figure of an harlot and the very nature of the predictions themselves, more the latter than the former’). The difficulty is, however, not confined to the application of the prophecy to Rome Papal, but extends over the application of it to Rome at all. … For Rome never has been, and from its position never could be, a great commercial city. I leave this difficulty unsolved, solved, merely requesting the student to bear in mind its true limits, and not to charge it exclusively on that interpretation which only shares it with any other possible one. The main features of the description are taken from that of the destruction of and lamentation over Tyre in Ezekiel 27., to which city they were strictly applicable. And possibly it may be said that they are also applicable to the Church which has wedded herself to the pride of the earth and its luxuries.” Alford.—E. R. C.]
Rev_18:17. And every pilot, etc.—Marine affairs are sketched as that form of world-commerce and industry which was, proportionally, most remote from the City. Even this general mercantilism is affected by the fall of Babylon, because the blow inflicted upon the kings and upon the luxury of the great world touches it likewise. From the pilots, who can sail in all directions, are distinguished those who take ship for definite ports—from these latter, all who do business at sea ( ôÞí èÜëáóóáí ἐñãÜæåóèáé ). [See Text and Note 21, p. 319.—E. R. C.]
Rev_18:18. The smoke of her burning.—As Rev_18:9. Not to be confounded with the smoke, Rev_14:11. The impression which the City has made on them is, proportionally, the most indefinite: she was
Section Fifteenth
First Special End-Judgment; Judgment upon Babylon. Earth-picture. (Ch. 18)
The first Act of the judgment, as executed by the Angel from Heaven, consists of the verdict upon Babylon, the sentence of Divine justice.
The second Act is the incipient execution of the judgment in the social sphere of justice. It is divided into two actions: (1) The people of God go out of Babylon (Rev_18:4; Rev_18:6), and (2) the world is commissioned to react against Babylon in pursuance of the same law of violence which she herself has exercised (Rev_18:6; Rev_18:8). The universality of her judgment is expressed in the despair and lamentation of all her allies, who are too cowardly to take her part, but yet are stricken with her. The third Act is the complete historic repudiation of Babylon, executed by the strong Angel with a millstone, in a symbolic act.
The whole constitutes the greatest tragedy of the world, complete in three or five Acts, according to the greater or less prominence bestowed upon the middle items:
1. The guilt of Babylon towards humanity;
2. The exode of the people of God from her;
3. The reaction of the hostile world against her;
4. The lamentation of her friends—a prelude to the final catastrophe;
5. The final catastrophe.
The Angel who, descending from Heaven, lightens the earth with his radiance, and proclaims the fall of Babylon, is also, without doubt, the actual spiritual author of her judgment. For he has great authority, and transports her judgment from Heaven to earth. That is, that judgment which is already declared in the sphere of the celestial Spirit, with the delineation of the character of Babylon, now, through the heavenly illumination proceeding from the Angel, becomes a subject of the universal consciousness of mankind. We hold that the Angel represents evangelic Christianity in the full development of the beauty of its moral and humane principles. For Babylon has outraged all these principles, from liberty of conscience to the recognition of public law. She has perverted her claim to be the educator of mankind into the exact opposite, having become the seducer and destroyer of humanity.
The cry of this Angel is followed by the voice from Heaven, the sentence of the heavenly Spirit, the law of the Kingdom of God—declaratory, on the one hand, of the right of the Church (come forth out of her) and, on the other hand, of the right of the State (recompense to her), and expressing itself, thirdly, as the spirit of history and poetry, in the portrayal of the great lamentations. The tragic coloring of this entire judgment-scene is distinctly brought out in all this; it is particularly prominent, however, in the symbolic execution of the final catastrophe.
Special.—[Rev_18:1.] Who is the Angel who comes down from Heaven, and whose glory lightens the earth?—[Rev_18:2.] The mighty cry over Babylon. Fallen! fallen! or the perfect certainty that Babylon will fall on earth, even as she has already fallen in the sight of God.—Contrast betwixt what Babylon should be and what she has become.—[Rev_18:3.] Babylon’s transgression against mankind: (1) against the nations, (2) against the kings, (3) against the rich and great.—[Rev_18:4.] Call to the people of God, to come out from Babylon: 1. Meaning of the call; 2. Motive of the call; 3. Neglect of the call (latitudinarianism); 4. Misinterpretation of the call (separatism).—[Rev_18:4; Rev_18:6.] Diverse conduct of the Church and the world toward guilty Babylon.—Retributory right of the world. This remains pure only in so far as it remains an execution of the right and keeps itself free from fanaticism.—[Rev_18:8.] Recompense of corporeal fiery judgments by a social and spiritual judgment of fire.—[Rev_18:7-8.] Contrast between the haughty self-blinding of Babylon and her imminent and great day of judgment.—The City of the Seven Mountains: yesterday and today.—[Rev_18:9-19.] The three lamentations of the world over the fall of Babylon. Common characteristics of them: 1. A view of her fall; 2. A standing afar off and refraining from taking her part; 3. A participation in the stroke that has fallen upon her—but in the sorrow of this world, with no recognition of the justice of the blow, of its nature as a judgment, or of the Judge Who has inflicted it.—Heaven’s judgments, earth’s tragedies.—[Rev_18:9-10.] Lamentation of the kings (see Exeg. Notes).—[Rev_18:11; Rev_18:15-17]. Lamentation of the great, the supporters of the luxury of the earth.—, [Rev_18:17-19]. Lamentation of the pilots or tradesmen.—Community and division of egoistical interests in the lamentations over the fall of Babylon.—Ironical enumeration of the depreciated goods of Babylon (Rev_18:12-14).—As the Church in its way, and the State in its way, so science and art in their way are concerned in the judgment upon Babylon.—The unspiritual lamentation of the world over the fall of Babylon contains the germ of that judgment which is later to descend upon the world.—[Rev_18:21.] The symbolic act of the strong Angel, a representation of the grand final catastrophe itself.—[Rev_18:22-23.] Babylon’s desolation. Her spiritual desolation shall be followed by an æsthetic desolation, and to this a desolation of business and of home life shall succeed.
Rev_18:24. The summit of Babylon’s guilt: she is the murderess of the prophets and saints.—This verse is supplemental to Rev_18:3.
Starke: Rev_18:2; comp. Isa_21:7; Jer_51:8 The repetition of the word [fallen] is indicative of the greatness and certainty of the fall.
Rev_18:4. This exode is based upon a gracious leading out on the part of God. There are certain grades in the execution of it, and it is performed as follows: 1. With the heart, by a right belief and acknowledgment of the truth, and hatred of false doctrine; 2. With the mouth, by a public confession of the truth, and rejection of errors; 3. With the body, by a going away from those places in which Babylon has its throne and superstition.—God’s people and Church are, partially, still in Babylon, although hidden; otherwise God could not command them to come out.—[Rev_18:5.] Sins that cry unto Heaven (Gen_4:10), whose measure is full, and upon which final ruin follows.
Rev_18:7. These words are taken from Isa_47:5-10. The greater the security and pride of the wicked, the more terrible is their punishment.
Rev_18:8. As Babylon burned innocent martyrs with fire, so shall she herself be burned with fire.
Rev_18:10. The fear of torment may cause us (outwardly) to remove far from those with whom we have sinned, but love to God alone can make their sin odious to us.
Rev_18:12. Quesnel: Let us gather treasures that will endure to eternity; nought is eternal save that which is done with a view to eternity. Rev_18:16. The world does not mourn over the loss of eternal salvation, but over the loss of riches and external magnificence.
Rev_18:20. It is at the downfall of evil, and at Divine vengeance that the pious rejoice; not out of a carnal mind and self-love, but by the ordinance of God and from the love of righteousness (Psa_91:8).
Rev_18:21. The wicked fall into the abyss of perdition as stones fall into the abyss of the sea. That which the world regards as highly exalted finally meets with the deeper fall (Eze_21:26).
Rev_18:24. The slaughter of true believers under the papacy is like the murder of the saints in the beginning of the world.—Great cities are destroyed on account of the many and enormous sins that are committed in them.—God reckons to the charge of the wicked all the sins of their ancestors, because they tread in their foot-steps (and the guilt of their ancestors attains its consummation and meridian in them).
Schlüssel Offenb. Joh. durch einen Kreuzritter (p. 289): The most terrible thing for a human community is when the salt of the earth, that should preserve it from corruption, is taken out of it by death or emigration, when the props of the rotten building give way, when Lot is led forth from Sodom, because there are not even, ten righteous men therein.
[From M. Henry: Rev_18:4. Those that are resolved to partake with wicked men in their sins must receive of their plagues.
Rev_18:5. When the sins of a people reach up to heaven, the wrath of God will reach down to earth.
Rev_18:7. God will proportion the punishment of sinners to the measure of their wickedness, pride and security.
Rev_18:9-19. The pleasures of sin are but for a season, and they will end in dismal sorrow.]