Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadHeinrich Meyer Commentary - Revelation 18
Verse Commentaries:
Chapter Level Commentary:
Rev_18:2. Instead of ἐν ἰσχύϊ , φωνῇ μεγάλῃ (Elz., Ew. ii.), read ἐν ἰσχυρᾷ φωνῇ , according to decisive witnesses (Lach., Tisch. [W. and H.]).
Rev_18:4. In favor of ἐξέλθατε , A testifies (Lach. 1846, Tisch.; à : ἐξέλθεται ; Elz.: ἐξέλθετε ); but the plural may have been written because of what follows. According to B, C, ἔξελθε (Lach. 1850) has at least equal authority, although even this sing. may be an emendation because of the address, ὁ λ . μ .
Rev_18:5. Instead of the interpretation ἠκολούθησαν (Elz.), Beng. already wrote, according to A, B, C: ἐκολλήθησαν ( à ).
Rev_18:6. The ὑμῖν after ἀπέδωκεν (Elz.) is, in accordance with A, B, C, à , to be deleted (Lach., Tisch. [W. and H.]). Likewise the αὐτῇ after διπλώσ .
Rev_18:7. Before κάθημαι , there is lacking, in the Rec., an ὅτι (A, B, C, à , Lach., Tisch.).
Rev_18:8. κρίνας . So A, B, C, à 1, al., Beng., Griesb., Lach., Tisch. [W. and H.]. The κρίνων (Elz.) is a poor effort at interpretation.
Rev_18:13. κρὶ ἄμωμον . So A, C, à , Beng., Griesb., Lach., Tisch. [W. and H.]. Already, in B, there is the error of an omission (Elz.).
Rev_18:14. The σου belongs probably after ὀπώρα (A, C, à , Lach., Tisch. [W. and H.]), and not after ψυχῆς (B, al., Elz.). The αὐτὰ must stand between οὐκέτι and οὐ μὴ (B, C, Lach., Tisch.), not at the close (Elz.). à has it before εὑρησ . (Tisch. IX. [W. and H.]). Instead of the modification εὑρήσης (Elz.), read, not εὕρῃς (B, Tisch.), but εὑρήσουσιν (A, C, à , al., Lach. [W. and H.]).
Rev_18:17. ἐπὶ τόπον πλέων . So A, B, C, Griesb., Lach., Tisch. [W. and H.]. à : ἐ . τὸν τὸπ . The Rec. ἐπὶ τῶν πλοίων ὁ ὅμιλος is an unauthorized interpretation.
After, in ch. 17, the great city has been brought to view under the σημεῖον of the great harlot, as the immediate object of God’s judgment, whose execution is now impending,[3908] there follows a description of this judgment. But this is shown[3909] to John, not in the way, as, e.g., Rev_21:9 sqq., the bride of the Lamb was shown him,—i.e., the judicial act itself whereby the city is effaced, is not presented to the gazing prophet,—but the description of the judgment is communicated in another form. In Rev_19:1 sqq., this is celebrated as actually completed. On the other hand, at the close of ch. 18, there impends the actual execution (Rev_18:21-24);[3910] also in the centre (Rev_18:4-20), the keynote of the description is future,[3911] which is directed also here to the actually still-impending judgment. Accordingly, Rev_18:1-3 dare not be so understood as though the completion of the judgment were presupposed, as a matter of fact, and accordingly, that the same reference must be made also between Rev_17:18 and Rev_18:1; but after a mighty angel has proleptically[3912] proclaimed the judgment now immediately impending over the city, as has already been done, another voice sounds from heaven (Rev_18:4-20), which first of all commands believers to flee out of the city, whose destruction is now to be accomplished (Rev_18:5 sqq.), and then describes how the fall of the city will be lamented by the inhabitants of the earth. Finally, another angel (Rev_18:21-24) shows, by a significant act, how quickly and completely the fall of the city shall be. The proper act of judgment upon the city, which is to be regarded as afterwards between Rev_18:24 sq. and Rev_19:1, John therefore does not see; but the more complete and manifest the statement in ch. 18, the more certainly is the promise of the angel in Rev_17:1 fulfilled.
It is to be observed in all three parts of the description (ch. 18), how not only the whole is penetrated by an agreement with O. T. models, but also, especially, how, after the manner of the ancient prophets, the threat of judgment is not expressed without repeated allusion to the guilt of sin, whereby the just wrath of God is called forth.[3913]
[3908] Cf. Rev_17:1, Rev_15:1, Rev_16:21.
[3909] Rev_17:1
[3910] Notice the future βληθήσεται , Rev_18:21.
[3911] Cf. Rev_18:4; Rev_18:6; Rev_18:8-9.
[3912] Cf. Rev_11:15-19, Rev_14:8.
[3913] Cf., already, Rev_14:8; Rev_14:15 sqq., Rev_16:5; Rev_16:19.