Page 574 - Demo

18:2 An angel sings a lament for the coming destruction of Babylon-Rome. No one truly loved this great city: the kings of various nations who paid tribute to her are like men who have had recourse to a prostitute.
18:11 The catalog of goods described here gives us a glimpse of the extensive reach of Rome in the ancient world. It was a place to which the products of every nation were poured. The merchants do not mourn for Babylon herself, but for the loss of their trade.
CHAPTER 17
i. [17:16] Ez 16:37–41; 23:25–29.
CHAPTER 18
a. [18:1] Ez 43:2.
b. [18:2] 14:8; Is 21:9; Jer 50:2–3; 51:8.
c. [18:3] 17:2; Jer 51:7.
d. [18:4] Is 48:20; Jer 50:8.
e. [18:5] Jer 51:9.
f. [18:6] Jer 50:15 / Jer 16:18.
g. [18:7] Is 47:8–9.
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REVELATION  - 
15Then he said to me,“The waters that you saw where the harlot lives represent large numbers of peoples, nations, and tongues. 16The ten horns* that you saw and the beast will hate the harlot; they will leave her desolate and naked; they will eat her esh and consume her with re.i 17For God has put it into their minds to carry out his purpose and
to make them come to an agreement to give their kingdom to the beast until the words of God are accomplished. 18The woman whom you saw represents the great city that has sovereignty over the kings of the earth.”
The Fall of Babylon.*
181After this I saw another angel coming down from
heaven, having great authority, and the earth became illumined by his splendor.a 2* He cried out in a mighty voice:
“Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great.b
She has become a haunt for demons.
She is a cage for every unclean spirit,
a cage for every unclean bird,
[a cage for every unclean] and disgusting [beast].
3For all the nations have drunk*
the wine of her licentious passion.
The kings of the earth had intercourse with her,
and the merchants of the earth grew rich from her drive for luxury.”c
4Then I heard another voice from heaven say:
“Depart from her,* my people,
so as not to take part in her sins and receive a share in her plagues,d
5for her sins are piled up to the sky, and God remembers her crimes.e 6Pay her back as she has paid others.
Pay her back double for her deeds.
Into her cup pour double what she poured.f 7To the measure of her boasting and wantonness
repay her in torment and grief; for she said to herself,
‘I sit enthroned as queen;
I am no widow,
and I will never know grief.’g
8Therefore, her plagues will come in one day, pestilence, grief, and famine;
she will be consumed by re.
For mighty is the Lord God who judges her.”
* [17:16–18] The ten horns: the ten pagan kings (Rev 17:12) who unwittingly ful ll God’s will against harlot Rome, the great city; cf. Ez 16:37.
* [18:1–19:4] A stirring dirge over the fall of Babylon-Rome. The perspective is prophetic, as if the fall of Rome had already taken place. The imagery here, as elsewhere in this book, is not to be taken literally. The vindictiveness of some of the language, borrowed from the scathing Old Testament prophecies against Babylon, Tyre, and Nineveh (Is 23; 24; 27; Jer 50–51; Ez 26– 27), is meant to portray symbolically the inexorable demands of God’s holiness and justice; cf. Introduction. The section concludes with a joyous canticle on the future glory of heaven.
* [18:2] Many Greek manuscripts and versions omit a cage for every unclean. . .beast.
* [18:3–24] Rome is condemned for her immorality, symbol of idolatry (see note on Rev 14:4),
and for persecuting the church; cf. Rev 19:2.
* [18:4] Depart from her: not evacuation of the city but separation from sinners, as always in
apocalyptic literature.