Chapter XVIII · ANALYSIS OF THE CHAPTER.

This chapter may be regarded as a still further explanatory episode (comp. Anal. to ch. xvii.), designed to show the effect of pouring out the seventh vial (ch. xvi. 17‒21) on the formidable Antichristian power so often referred to. The description in this chapter is that of a rich merchant-city reduced to desolation, and is but carrying out the general idea under a different form. The chapter comprises the following points:—

(1) Another angel is seen descending from heaven, having great power, and making proclamation that Babylon the great is fallen, and is become utterly desolate, ver. 1‒3.

(2) A warning voice is heard from heaven, calling on the people of God to come out of her, and to be partakers neither of her sins nor her plagues. Her torment and sorrow would be proportionate to her pride and luxury; and her plagues would come upon her suddenly; death, and mourning, and famine, and consumption by fire, ver. 4‒8.

(3) Lamentation over her fall—by those especially who had been connected with her; who had been corrupted by her; who had been profited by her, ver. 9‒19. (a) By kings, ver. 9, 10. They had lived deliciously with her, and they would lament her. (b) By merchants, ver. 11‒17. They had trafficked with her, but now that traffic was to cease, and no man would buy of her. Their business, so far as she was concerned, was at an end. All that she had accumulated was now to be destroyed; all her gathered riches were to be consumed; all the traffic in those things by which she had been enriched was to be ended; and the city that was more than all others enriched by these things, as if clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls, was to be destroyed for ever. (c) By ship-masters and seamen, ver. 17‒19. They had been made rich by this traffic, but now all was ended; the smoke of her burning is seen to ascend, and they stand afar off and weep.

(4) Rejoicing over her fall, ver. 20. Heaven is called upon to rejoice, and the holy apostles and prophets, for their blood is avenged, and persecution ceases in the earth.

(5) The final destruction of the city, ver. 21‒24. A mighty angel takes up a stone and casts it into the sea as an emblem of the destruction that is to come upon it. The voice of harpers, and musicians, and pipers would be heard no more in it; and no craftsmen would be there, and the sound of the millstone would be heard no more, and the light of a candle would shine no more there, and the voice of the bridegroom and bride would be heard no more.

14. And the fruits that thy soul lusted after. Literally, “the fruits of the desire of thy soul.” The word rendered fruits—ὀπώρα—properly means, late summer; dog-days, the time when Sirius, or the Dog-star, is predominant. In the East this is the season when the fruits ripen, and hence the word comes to denote fruit. The reference is to any kind of fruit that would be brought for traffic into a great city, and that would be regarded as an article of luxury. ¶ Are departed from thee. That is, they are no more brought for sale into the city. ¶ And all things which were dainty and goodly. These words “characterize all kinds of furniture and clothing which were gilt, or plated, or embroidered, and therefore were bright or splendid” (Professor Stuart). ¶ And thou shalt find them no more at all. The address here is decidedly to the city itself. The meaning is, that they would no more be found there.

15. The merchants of these things. Who trafficked in these things, and who supplied the city with them, ver. 11. ¶ Which were made rich by her. By traffic with her. ¶ Shall stand afar off. Ver. 10. ¶ For fear of her torment. Struck with terror by her torment, so that they did not dare to approach her, ver. 10.