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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadHeinrich Meyer Commentary - Revelation 18:17 - 18:19
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Rev_18:17-19. The lament of the shipmasters, which likewise contains the three points of Rev_18:9 sq. and Rev_18:11-16 : the standing afar off of those lamenting, the remembrance of the city’s former glory, and the cry of woe over its destruction.
On the preterite forms of statement ( ἔστησαν , Rev_18:17, ἔκραζον , Rev_18:18-19), from which, however, according to the plan of the entire description, ch. 18. it is not to be inferred that John actually beheld the fall of the city, cf. on Rev_18:11, and the preliminary note on ch. 18.
All classes of mariners are mentioned, just as, Rev_18:11 sqq., all classes of merchants were indicated: “pilots,” and πᾶς ὁ ἑπὶ τόπον πλέων , i.e., not exactly the “coasters,”[3990] but those who regularly sailed to a definite harbor;[3991] and ναῦται , i.e., “mariners” in general; and, as it is finally said, “as many as work the sea,” i.e., all those for whom the sea is the sphere of their calling and the source of livelihood; fishermen also belong to this category. On the expression common in the classics, τὴν θάλ . ἐργάζεσθαι , “to work the sea,” cf. many examples in Wetst.
καπνὸν τ . πυρ . Cf. Rev_18:9.
The question of lamentation, τίς ὁμοία τῇ πόλει τῇ μεγάλῃ ; is likewise a sarcastic allusion to the former self-deification of the metropolis of the empire.[3992]
ἔβαλον χοῦν , κ . τ . λ . Cf. Eze_27:30. Concerning this sign of grief, cf. Winer, Rwb., on the word.
ἐν ᾖ ἐπλούτησαν , κ . τ . λ . The city was the place where all mariners with their manifold wares had found a rich and productive market; for, because of its precious treasures,[3993] the city was able to become the source of wealth to all dealers. ( ἐπλούτ .
ἐκ τῆς τιμιότητος αὐτ . Cf. Rev_18:3.
ἠρημώθη .) Cf. Rev_17:3. [See Note LXXXIII., p. 449.]
[3990] De Wette.
[3991] Beng., Hengstenb., etc. Cf. Act_27:2.
[3992] Cf. Rev_13:4.
[3993] Cf. Rev_18:16.