Revelation 18

Re 18:1-24.

BABYLON'S

FALL:

GOD'S

PEOPLE

CALLED

OUT OF

HER:

THE

KINGS AND

MERCHANTS OF THE

EARTH

MOURN,

WHILE THE

SAINTS

REJOICE AT

HER

FALL.

1. And--so Vulgate and ANDREAS. But

A, B, Syriac, and Coptic omit "And."

power--Greek, "authority."

lightened--"illumined."

with--Greek, "owing to."

2. mightily . . . strong--not supported by

manuscripts. But A, B, Vulgate, Syriac, and Coptic read,

"with (literally, 'in') a mighty voice."

is fallen, is fallen--so A, Vulgate, Syriac, and

ANDREAS. But B and Coptic omit the second

"is fallen"

(Isa 21:9;

Jer 51:8).

This phrase is here prophetical of her fall, still future, as

Re 18:4

proves.

devils--Greek, "demons."

the hold--a keep or prison.

3. drunk--

Re 14:8,

from which perhaps "the wine" may have been interpolated. They have

drunk of her fornication, the consequence of which will be

wrath to themselves. But A, B, and C read, "(owing to the wrath

of her fornication all nations) have fallen." Vulgate and

most versions read as English Version, which may be the right

reading though not supported by the oldest manuscripts. Babylon, the

whore, is destroyed before the beast slays the two witnesses

(Re 11:7),

and then the beast himself is destroyed.

the wine--so B, Syriac, and Coptic. But A, C, and

Vulgate omit.

abundance--literally, "power."

delicacies--Greek, "luxury." See on

1Ti 5:11,

where the Greek verb "wax wanton" is akin to the noun here.

Translate, "wanton luxury." The reference is not to earthly

merchandise, but to spiritual wares, indulgences, idolatries,

superstitions, worldly compromises, wherewith the harlot, that is, the

apostate Church, has made merchandise of men. This applies

especially to Rome; but the Greek, and even in a less degree

Protestant churches, are not guiltless. However, the principle

of evangelical Protestantism is pure, but the principle of Rome

and the Greek church is not so.

4. Come out of her, my people--quoted from

Jer 50:8; 51:6, 45.

Even in the Romish Church God has a people: but they are in great

danger; their only safety is in coming out of her at once. So also in

every apostate or world-conforming church there are some of God's

invisible and true Church, who, if they would be safe, must come out.

Especially at the eve of God's judgment on apostate Christendom: as Lot

was warned to come out of Sodom just before its destruction, and Israel

to come from about the tents of Dathan and Abiram. So the first

Christians came out of Jerusalem when the apostate Jewish Church was

judged. "State and Church are precious gifts of God. But the State

being desecrated to a different end from what God designed it, namely.

to govern for, and as under, God, becomes beast-like; the Church

apostatizing becomes the harlot. The true woman is the kernel: beast

and harlot are the shell: whenever the kernel is mature, the shell is

thrown away" [AUBERLEN]. "The harlot is not Rome

alone (though she is pre-eminently so), but every Church that has not

Christ's mind and spirit. False Christendom, divided into very many

sects, is truly Babylon, that is, confusion. However, in all

Christendom the true Jesus-congregation, the woman clothed with the

sun, lives and is hidden. Corrupt, lifeless Christendom is the harlot,

whose great aim is the pleasure of the flesh, and which is governed by

the spirit of nature and the world" [HAHN in

AUBERLEN]. The first justification of the woman is

in her being called out of Babylon the harlot, as the culminating stage

of the latter's sin, when judgment is about to fall: for apostate

Christendom, Babylon, is not to be converted, but to be destroyed.

Secondly, she has to pass through an ordeal of persecution from the

beast, which purifies and prepares her for the transfiguration glory at

Christ's coming

(Re 20:4;

Lu 21:28).

be not partakers--Greek, "have no fellowship with

her sins."

that ye receive not of her plagues--as Lot's wife, by lingering

too near the polluted and doomed city.

5. her sins--as a great heap.

reached--Greek, "reached so far as to come into close

contact with, and to cleave unto."

6. Addressed to the executioners of God's wrath.

Reward--Greek, "repay."

she rewarded--English Version reading adds "you" with

none of the oldest manuscripts. But A, B, C, Vulgate, Syriac,

and Coptic omit it. She had not rewarded or repaid

the world power for some injury which the world power had inflicted on

her; but she had given the world power that which was its

due, namely, spiritual delusions, because it did not like to

retain God in its knowledge; the unfaithful Church's principle was,

"Populus vult decipi, et decipiatur." "The people like to be

deceived, and let them be deceived."

double--of sorrow. Contrast with this the double of joy

which Jerusalem shall receive for her past suffering

(Isa 61:7;

Zec 9:12);

even as she has received double punishment for her sins

(Isa 40:2).

unto her--So Syriac, Coptic, and

ANDREAS. A, B, and C omit it.

in the cup--

(Re 18:3;

Re 14:8; 17:4).

filled--literally "mixed."

fill to her double--of the Lord's cup of wrath.

7. How much--that is in proportion as.

lived deliciously--luxuriously: see on

Re 18:3,

where the Greek is akin.

sorrow--Greek, "mourning," as for a dead husband.

I sit--so Vulgate. But A, B, and C prefix "that."

I . . . am no widow--for the world power is my husband

and my supporter.

shall see no sorrow--Greek, "mourning." "I am seated

(this long time) . . . I am no widow

. . . I shall see no sorrow," marks her complete

unconcerned security as to the past, present, and future

[BENGEL]. I shall never have to mourn as one

bereft of her husband. As Babylon was queen of the East, so Rome has

been queen of the West, and is called on Imperial coins "the

eternal city." So Papal Rome is called by

AMMIAN MARCELLIN [15.7].

"Babylon is a former Rome, and Rome a latter Babylon. Rome is a

daughter of Babylon, and by her, as by her mother, God has been pleased

to subdue the world under one sway" [AUGUSTINE].

As the Jew's restoration did not take place till Babylon's fall, so R.

KIMCHI on Obadiah, writes, "When Rome (Edom) shall

be devastated, there shall be redemption to Israel." Romish idolatries

have been the great stumbling-blocks to the Jews' acceptance of

Christianity.

8. death--on herself, though she thought herself secure even

from the death of her husband.

mourning--instead of her feasting.

famine--instead of her luxurious delicacies

(Re 18:3, 7).

fire--(See on

Re 17:16).

Literal fire may burn the literal city of Rome, which is situated in

the midst of volcanic agencies. As the ground was cursed for Adam's

sin, and the earth under Noah was sunk beneath the flood, and Sodom was

burnt with fire, so may Rome be. But as the harlot is mystical (the

whole faithless Church), the burning may be mainly mystical,

symbolizing utter destruction and removal. BENGEL

is probably right in thinking Rome will once more rise to power. The

carnal, faithless, and worldly elements in all churches, Roman, Greek,

and Protestant, tend towards one common center, and prepare the way for

the last form of the beast, namely, Antichrist. The Pharisees were in

the main sound in creed, yet judgment fell on them as on the unsound

Sadducees and half-heathenish Samaritans. So faithless and adulterous,

carnal, worldly Protestant churches, will not escape for their

soundness of creed.

the Lord--so B, C, Syriac, and

ANDREAS. But A and Vulgate omit. "Strong"

is the meaning of God's Hebrew name, "EL."

judgeth--But A, B, and C read the past tense

(Greek, "krinas"), "who hath judged her": the

prophetical past for the future: the charge in

Re 18:4

to God's people to come out of her implies that the judgment was

not yet actually executed.

9. lived deliciously--Greek, "luxuriated." The faithless

Church, instead of reproving, connived at the self-indulgent luxury of

the great men of this world, and sanctioned it by her own practice.

Contrast the world's rejoicing over the dead bodies of the two

witnesses

(Re 11:10)

who had tormented it by their faithfulness, with its

lamentations over the harlot who had made the way to heaven

smooth, and had been found a useful tool in keeping subjects in abject

tyranny. Men's carnal mind relishes a religion like that of the

apostate Church, which gives an opiate to conscience, while leaving the

sinner license to indulge his lusts.

bewail her--A, B, C, Syriac, Coptic, and

CYPRIAN omit "her."

10. God's judgments inspire fear even in the worldly, but it is

of short duration, for the kings and great men soon attach themselves

to the beast in its last and worst shape, as open Antichrist, claiming

all that the harlot had claimed in blasphemous pretensions and more,

and so making up to them for the loss of the harlot.

mighty--Rome in Greek means strength;

though that derivation is doubtful.

11. shall--So. B. But A and C read the present, "weep and

mourn."

merchandise--Greek, "cargo": wares carried in

ships: ship-lading (compare

Re 18:17).

Rome was not a commercial city, and is not likely from her position to

be so. The merchandise must therefore be spiritual, even as the

harlot is not literal, but spiritual. She did not witness against

carnal luxury and pleasure-seeking, the source of the merchants'

gains, but conformed to them

(Re 18:7).

She cared not for the sheep, but for the wool. Professing Christian

merchants in her lived as if this world not heaven, were the reality,

and were unscrupulous as to the means of getting gain. Compare

Notes, see on

Zec 5:4-11,

on the same subject, the judgment on mystical Babylon's

merchants for unjust gain. All the merchandise here mentioned occurs

repeatedly in the Roman Ceremonial.

12. (See on

Re 17:4).

stones . . . pearls--Greek, "stone

. . . pearl."

fine linen--A, B, and C read Greek, "bussinou" for

"bussou," that is, "fine linen manufacture"

[ALFORD]. The manufacture for which Egypt

(the type of the apostate Church,

Re 11:8)

was famed. Contrast "the fine linen"

(Eze 16:10)

put on Israel, and on the New Testament Church

(Re 19:8),

the Bride, by God

(Ps 132:9).

thyine wood--the citrus of the Romans: probably the

cypressus thyoyides, or the thuia articulata. "Citron

wood" [ALFORD]. A sweet-smelling tree of Cyrene in

Lybia, used for incense.

all manner vessels--Greek, "every vessel," or

"furniture."

13. cinnamon--designed by God for better purposes: being an

ingredient in the holy anointing oil, and a plant in the garden of the

Beloved

(So 4:14);

but desecrated to vile uses by the adulteress

(Pr 7:17).

odours--of incense. A, C, Vulgate, and Syriac

prefix "and amomium" (a precious hair ointment made from an Asiatic

shrub). English Version reading is supported by Coptic

and ANDREAS, but not oldest manuscripts.

ointments--Greek, "ointment."

frankincense--Contrast the true "incense" which God loves

(Ps 141:2;

Mal 1:11).

fine flour--the similago of the Latins

[ALFORD].

beasts--of burden: cattle.

slaves--Greek, "bodies."

souls of men--

(Eze 27:13).

Said of slaves. Appropriate to the spiritual harlot, apostate

Christendom, especially Rome, which has so often enslaved both

bodies and souls of men. Though the New Testament does

not directly forbid slavery, which would, in the then state of the

world, have incited a slave revolt, it virtually condemns it, as here.

Popery has derived its greatest gains from the sale of masses for

the souls of men after death, and of indulgences purchased from

the Papal chancery by rich merchants in various countries, to be

retailed at a profit [MOSHEIM, III, 95, 96].

14. Direct address to Babylon.

the fruits that thy soul lusted after--Greek, "thy

autumn-ripe fruits of the lust (eager desire) of the soul."

dainty--Greek, "fat": "sumptuous" in food.

goodly--"splendid," "bright," in dress and equipage.

departed--supported by none of our manuscripts. But A, B, C,

Vulgate, Syriac, and Coptic read, "perished."

thou shalt--A, C, Vulgate, and Syriac read,

"They (men) shall no more find them at all."

15. of these things--of the things mentioned,

Re 18:12, 13.

which--"who."

made rich by--Greek, "derived riches from her."

stand afar off for the fear--(Compare

Re 18:10).

wailing--Greek, "mourning."

16. And--so Vulgate and ANDREAS. But

A, B, and C omit.

decked--literally, "glided."

stones . . . pearls--Greek, "stone

. . . pearl." B and ANDREAS read

"pearls." But A and C, "pearl."

17. is come to naught--Greek, "is desolated."

shipmaster--Greek, "steersman," or "pilot."

all the company in ships--A, C, Vulgate, and

Syriac read, "Every one who saileth to a place" (B has

". . . to the place"), every voyager. Vessels

were freighted with pilgrims to various shrines, so that in one month

(A.D. 1300) two hundred thousand pilgrims were

counted in Rome [D'AAUBIGNE, Histoire de la

Reformation]: a source of gain, not only to the Papal see, but to

shipmasters, merchants, pilots, &c. These latter, however, are

not restricted to those literally "shipmasters," &c., but mainly refer,

in the mystical sense, to all who share in the spiritual traffic of

apostate Christendom.

18. when they saw--Greek, "horontes." But A, B, C,

and ANDREAS read, Greek,

"blepontes," "looking at." Greek, "blepo," is to

use the eyes, to look: the act of seeing without thought

of the object seen. Greek, "horao," refers to the thing

seen or presented to the eyes [TITTMANN].

smoke--so B, C. But A reads "place."

What city is like--Compare the similar beast as to the

beast,

Re 13:4:

so closely do the harlot and beast approximate one another. Contrast

the attribution of this praise to God, to whom alone it is due, by

His servants

(Ex 15:11).

MARTIAL says of Rome, "Nothing is equal to her;"

and ATHENÆUS, "She is the epitome of the

world."

19. wailing--"mourning."

that had ships--A, B, and C read, "that had their ships":

literally, "the ships."

costliness--her costly treasures: abstract for concrete.

20. holy apostles--So C reads. But A, B, Vulgate, Syriac,

Coptic, and ANDREAS read, "Ye saints and

ye apostles."

avenged you on her--Greek, "judged your judgment on

(literally, exacting it from) her." "There is more joy in heaven

at the harlot's downfall than at that of the two beasts. For the most

heinous of all sin is the sin of those who know God's word of grace,

and keep it not. The worldliness of the Church is the most worldly of

all worldliness. Hence, Babylon, in Revelation, has not only Israel's

sins, but also the sins of the heathen; and John dwells longer on the

abominations and judgments of the harlot than on those of the beast.

The term 'harlot' describes the false Church's essential character. She

retains her human shape as the woman, does not become a

beast: she has the form of godliness, but denies its power. Her

rightful lord and husband, Jehovah-Christ, and the joys and goods of

His house, are no longer her all in all, but she runs after the visible

and vain things of the world, in its manifold forms. The fullest form

of her whoredom is, where the Church wishes to be itself a worldly

power, uses politics and diplomacy, makes flesh her arm, uses unholy

means for holy ends, spreads her dominion by sword or money, fascinates

men by sensual ritualism, becomes 'mistress of ceremonies' to the

dignitaries of the world, flatters prince or people, and like Israel,

seeks the help of one world power against the danger threatening from

another" [AUBERLEN]. Judgment, therefore,

begins with the harlot, as in privileges the house of

God.

21. a--Greek, "one."

millstone--Compare the judgment on the Egyptian hosts at the Red

Sea,

Ex 15:5, 10;

Ne 9:11,

and the foretold doom of Babylon, the world power,

Jer 51:63, 64.

with violence--Greek, "with impetus." This verse shows

that this prophecy is regarded as still to be fulfilled.

22. pipers--flute players. "Musicians," painters and sculptors,

have desecrated their art to lend fascination to the sensuous worship

of corrupt Christendom.

craftsman--artisan.

23. What a blessed contrast is

Re 22:5,

respecting the city of God: "They need no candle (just as

Babylon shall no more have the light of a candle, but for

a widely different reason), for the Lord God giveth them light."

candle--Translate as Greek, "lamp."

bridegroom . . . bride . . . no more

. . . in thee--Contrast the heavenly city, with its

Bridegroom, Bride, and blessed marriage supper

(Re 19:7, 9; 21:2, 9;

Isa 62:4, 5).

thy merchants were--So most of the best authorities read. But A

omits the Greek article before "merchants," and then translates,

"The great men of . . . were thy merchants."

sorceries--Greek, "sorcery."

24. Applied by Christ

(Mt 23:35)

to apostate Jerusalem, which proves that not merely the literal city

Rome, and the Church of Rome (though the chief representative of

the apostasy), but the WHOLE of the faithless

Church of both the Old and New Testament is meant by Babylon the

harlot; just as the whole Church (Old and New Testament) is meant by

"the woman"

(Re 12:1).

As to literal city, ARINGHUS in

BENGEL says, Pagan Rome was the "general shambles"

for slaying the sheep of Jesus. FRED. SEYLER in BENGEL calculates that

papal Rome, between A.D. 1540 and 1580, slew more

than nine hundred thousand Protestants. Three reasons for the harlot's

downfall are given: (1) The worldly greatness of her

merchants, which was due to unholy traffic in spiritual things.

(2) Her sorceries, or juggling tricks, in which the false

prophet that ministers to the beast in its last form shall exceed her;

compare "sorcerers"

(Re 21:8; 22:15),

specially mentioned among those doomed to the lake of fire. (3) Her

persecution of (Old Testament) "prophets" and (New Testament)

"saints."