Revelation 18: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

An angel with great authority announces that Babylon the great has fallen and become a home for unclean spirits, and a voice from heaven calls God's people to come out of her so they do not share her sins or her plagues. Her plagues arrive in a single day, and the kings who shared her luxury and the seafarers who grew rich from her stand far off and watch the smoke of her burning, while the merchants weep because no one buys their cargo any more. A mighty angel throws a millstone into the sea to picture how the city will be thrown down and never found again, and lists the ordinary sounds that will never be heard in her. The chapter ends by saying the blood of prophets, of God's holy people, and of all who were killed on the earth was found in her.

Claim by Claim

1. 18:1
   • After these things John saw another angel coming down from heaven.
   • That angel had great authority.
   • The earth was lit up by that angel's glory.
2. 18:2
   • The angel cried out with a mighty voice.
   • The angel said that Babylon the great has fallen.
   • The angel repeated that she has fallen.
   • The angel said Babylon has become a dwelling place of demons.
   • The angel said Babylon has become a holding place of every unclean spirit.
   • The angel said Babylon has become a holding place of every unclean and hated bird.
3. 18:3
   • All the nations have drunk of the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality.
   • The kings of the earth committed sexual immorality with her.
   • The merchants of the earth grew rich from the power of her luxury.
4. 18:4
   • John heard another voice from heaven.
   • The voice told God's people to come out of her.
   • The voice gave as the reason that they not share in her sins.
   • The voice gave as the reason that they not receive of her plagues.
5. 18:5
   • Her sins have piled up as far as heaven.
   • God has remembered her wrongdoings.
6. 18:6
   • The command is given to repay her as she also repaid.
   • The command is given to double to her double according to her works.
   • The command is given to mix a double portion for her in the cup she mixed.
7. 18:7
   • The command is given to give her torment and grief in proportion to how much she glorified herself and lived in luxury.
   • She says in her heart that she sits as a queen.
   • She says in her heart that she is not a widow.
   • She says in her heart that she will never see grief.
8. 18:8
   • Because of this her plagues will come in one day.
   • Her plagues are death, grief, and famine.
   • She will be burned up with fire.
   • The Lord God who has judged her is strong.
9. 18:9
   • The kings of the earth will weep and wail over her.
   • Those kings committed sexual immorality with her.
   • Those kings lived in luxury with her.
   • They will weep when they see the smoke of her burning.
10. 18:10
    • They will stand far off because of fear of her torment.
    • They will say, Woe, woe, the great city.
    • They will call Babylon the mighty city.
    • They will say her judgment came in one hour.
11. 18:11
    • The merchants of the earth weep and mourn over her.
    • The reason is that no one buys their cargo any more.
12. 18:12
    • The cargo includes gold and silver.
    • The cargo includes precious stone and pearls.
    • The cargo includes fine linen, purple, silk, and scarlet.
    • The cargo includes every kind of citron wood.
    • The cargo includes every article of ivory.
    • The cargo includes every article of most precious wood, bronze, iron, and marble.
13. 18:13
    • The cargo includes cinnamon and spice.
    • The cargo includes incense, ointment, and frankincense.
    • The cargo includes wine and olive oil.
    • The cargo includes fine flour and wheat.
    • The cargo includes cattle and sheep.
    • The cargo includes horses and chariots.
    • The cargo includes slaves and souls of men.
14. 18:14
    • The fruit your soul desired has departed from you.
    • All the rich and splendid things have perished from you.
    • They will never be found again.
15. 18:15
    • The merchants of these things grew rich from her.
    • They will stand far off because of fear of her torment.
    • They will weep and mourn.
16. 18:16
    • They will say, Woe, woe, the great city.
    • The city was clothed in fine linen, purple, and scarlet.
    • The city was adorned with gold, precious stone, and pearl.
17. 18:17
    • In one hour such great wealth was laid waste.
    • Every shipmaster stood far off.
    • Everyone who sails to any place stood far off.
    • Sailors stood far off.
    • All who make their living by the sea stood far off.
18. 18:18
    • They cried out when they saw the smoke of her burning.
    • They asked what city is like the great city.
19. 18:19
    • They threw dust on their heads.
    • They cried out, weeping and mourning.
    • They said, Woe, woe, the great city.
    • All who had ships on the sea grew rich by her wealth.
    • They said she was laid waste in one hour.
20. 18:20
    • Heaven is told to rejoice over her.
    • The saints, the apostles, and the prophets are told to rejoice over her.
    • The reason is that God has judged her case on their behalf.
21. 18:21
    • A mighty angel picked up a stone like a great millstone.
    • The angel threw the stone into the sea.
    • The angel said that Babylon the great city will be thrown down with such violence.
    • The angel said Babylon will never be found again.
22. 18:22
    • The sound of harpists, musicians, flute players, and trumpeters will never be heard in her again.
    • No craftsman of any craft will ever be found in her again.
    • The sound of a millstone will never be heard in her again.
23. 18:23
    • The light of a lamp will never shine in her again.
    • The voice of bridegroom and bride will never be heard in her again.
    • Her merchants were the great men of the earth.
    • All the nations were deceived by her sorcery.
24. 18:24
    • In her was found the blood of prophets and saints.
    • In her was found the blood of all who had been slain on the earth.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

18:1

"The earth was lightened with his glory" means the earth was lit up by his brightness. In 1611 "lightened" meant illuminated, not made lighter in weight.

18:2

Babylon was the empire that destroyed Jerusalem and carried its people into exile six centuries before John wrote. By his day Jewish and Christian writers used the name as a coded label for whatever great power then ruled and oppressed them, most often Rome. The doubled "is fallen, is fallen" is a Hebrew way of announcing a certainty; the verb is past tense even though the fall is still to come, a standard prophetic device. KJV "devils" translates the Greek word for demons, spirits, not the Devil himself. "Unclean" is a ritual term meaning unfit for God's use or for the table, not dirty; the unclean birds are scavengers such as vultures and owls, which Jewish law forbade as food. The Greek word behind "cage" can mean either a prison or a haunt where such creatures roost, and translators differ.

18:3

KJV "fornication" covers sexual immorality of any kind. Israel's prophets routinely described a city or nation that betrayed its god or sold itself to foreign powers as an unfaithful wife or a prostitute, and that older image is running underneath this whole chapter. The Greek word rendered "wrath" here can also mean burning passion, so the phrase may be the wine of her raging lust or the wine of the anger her immorality brings; both readings are ancient. "Waxed rich" simply means grew rich, and "delicacies" means self-indulgent luxury rather than fine food.

18:4

"Plagues" in older English means blows or disasters of any kind, not only disease. "Come out of her, my people" repeats a call the prophets made to Jews living in the historical Babylon, telling them to leave the city before its judgment fell.

18:5

When the Bible says God "remembered," it never means he had forgotten. It means the time has come for him to act.

18:6

"Reward" in 1611 meant simply to pay back, whether the payment was a kindness or a punishment. Wine in the ancient world was normally mixed with water and with spices before serving, so "the cup which she hath filled" pictures a drink she mixed for others now being mixed at double strength for her.

18:7

"Lived deliciously" means lived in luxury and self-indulgence; it has nothing to do with taste. A widow in this world had lost not only a husband but her legal protector and her standing, and was proverbially poor and defenseless, so "I sit a queen, and am no widow" is a boast of security and power. The line echoes a taunt against the old Babylon in Isaiah 47.

18:10

"Alas, alas" translates a cry of grief and dread, the sound mourners made. "One hour" here means a single brief span of time rather than sixty minutes exactly; the point is the speed of the collapse.

18:12

This is a cargo list of the luxury trade of the Roman Mediterranean. "Fine linen" is the costly bleached linen worn by the rich and by priests. "Purple" was dye extracted a drop at a time from murex sea snails and was so expensive it marked out officials and royalty. "Scarlet" was a red dye made from crushed insects, also costly. "Thyine wood" is citron wood from North Africa, whose mottled grain made tabletops that sold for the price of an estate. "Brass" in KJV always means bronze; true brass was not in common use. "Vessels" means manufactured objects generally, not only containers.

18:13

"Odours" means aromatic spices. Frankincense is a fragrant resin tapped from trees in southern Arabia and burned as incense, expensive because of the distance it traveled. "Beasts" here means cattle. The word behind "chariots" is not the war chariot but a four wheeled traveling carriage of Gallic design, a rich man's vehicle. The final pair, "slaves, and souls of men," renders a Greek phrase that reads literally "bodies, and souls of men"; "bodies" was ordinary trade jargon for slaves, and the second phrase either repeats it in blunter words or adds the human lives sold along with the cargo. Translators divide on which, and the harshness is deliberate either way.

18:14

"Lusted after" in 1611 meant simply longed for or craved, with no necessarily sexual sense. "Dainty and goodly" means rich and splendid, describing costly things rather than delicate ones.

18:16

"Decked" means adorned or decorated. The city is pictured as a woman dressed in the very merchandise the merchants have just listed.

18:17

"Come to nought" means brought to nothing, destroyed. "All the company in ships" translates a phrase that may mean passengers or those who sail along a coastal route; ancient shipping ran mostly within sight of land.

18:19

Throwing dust or ashes on the head was a standard public gesture of grief and shock throughout the ancient Near East, done alongside tearing one's clothes and loud wailing. "By reason of her costliness" means because of her wealth and extravagant spending.

18:20

"Avenged you on her" renders a Greek courtroom idiom that reads roughly "God has judged your judgment out of her," meaning he has tried the case and given the verdict in your favor. "Apostles" means those sent out as authorized messengers, the term used for the founding emissaries of the early church. KJV reads "holy apostles and prophets"; many Greek manuscripts read instead "saints and apostles and prophets," listing three groups, and translations differ accordingly. "Saints" in this book means God's holy people generally, all believers, not an honored few.

18:21

A millstone is the heavy circular stone used to grind grain, often several feet across and turned by a donkey; a large one weighed hundreds of pounds and would sink instantly and irretrievably. Performing a message as a physical act rather than speaking it was a recognized prophetic method, and this one deliberately repeats Jeremiah 51, where a scroll weighted with a stone was thrown into the Euphrates to signal Babylon's fall.

18:22

"Pipers" are flute players. A millstone turning was the ordinary background noise of every inhabited town, heard each morning as the day's grain was ground, so its silence is the sound of a place with no one left living in it.

18:23

"Candle" in KJV nearly always means an oil lamp; wax candles were rare. Lamplight at night and the noise of a wedding party were the two commonest signs that a town was alive, and prophets paired them the same way when announcing a city's ruin. "Sorceries" translates the Greek word pharmakeia, which covered spells, potions and drugs together, and was also used loosely for any seductive manipulation.

18:24

"Saints" in the King James means all people who belong to God, not just a few especially holy ones. To say their blood was "found in her" means she was guilty of killing them.