Revelation
Chapter 18
Overview
Babylon appears as both a great city and the dazzling face of a corrupt world economy—wealthy, violent, and sure it can never fall. An angel announces its collapse, while a heavenly voice calls God’s people away from its wrongdoing. Kings, merchants, and sailors mourn, less for the city than for the profits disappearing with it. Their long inventory of luxury ends with enslaved human lives, exposing the true price of the glitter. The chapter closes with a millstone plunged into the sea: a powerful picture of a society vanishing under the weight of its own injustice.
1After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven. He had great authority, and the earth was lit up by his radiance.
2He called out in a powerful voice: “Fallen, fallen is great Babylon! She has become a home for demons, a haunt for every foul spirit, a cage for every foul bird, and a cage for every foul and hated animal.
3The wine of her raging sexual corruption has brought down every nation. The kings of the earth joined in her sexual corruption, and the merchants of the earth grew rich from her enormous appetite for luxury.”
4Then I heard another voice from heaven say: “Come out of her, my people, so that you do not take part in her sins and do not share in the disasters that strike her.
5The voice continued: “Her sins are piled up as high as heaven, and God has remembered her crimes.
6Pay her back as she paid others. Repay her twice over for what she has done. In the cup of suffering she mixed for others, mix a double portion for her.
7Give her as much torment and grief as the honor and luxury she gave herself. In her heart she says, ‘I sit as a queen. I am not a widow, and I will never experience grief.’
8Because of this, her disasters will come in a single day: death, grief, and famine. She will be completely burned with fire, because the Lord God who has judged her is powerful.”
9The kings of the earth who joined in her sexual corruption and shared her luxury will weep and beat their chests in grief when they see the smoke from her burning.
10Terrified by her torment, they will stand far away and say: “How terrible, how terrible for you, Babylon, you great and powerful city! Your sentence has come in a single hour!”
11The merchants of the earth weep and grieve over her because no one buys their cargo anymore.
12That cargo includes gold, silver, precious stones, pearls, fine linen, purple cloth, silk, scarlet cloth, every kind of fragrant citron wood, and every kind of object made from ivory, costly wood, bronze, iron, and marble.
13It also includes cinnamon, aromatic spice, incense, perfumed oil, frankincense, wine, olive oil, fine flour, wheat, cattle, sheep, horses, carriages, and slaves—the bodies and lives of human beings.
14The merchants say to the city: “The fruit you longed for has gone from you. All your rich and splendid luxuries have vanished, and no one will ever find them again.”
15The merchants who sold these things and became rich because of her will stand far away, terrified by her torment. They will weep and grieve,
16saying: “How terrible, how terrible for the great city! She was dressed in fine linen, purple, and scarlet, and decorated with gold, precious stones, and pearls.
17In a single hour, such vast wealth has been wiped out!” Every ship’s captain, everyone traveling by ship, the sailors, and all who earn their living from the sea stood far away.
18When they saw the smoke from her burning, they cried out: “What city was ever like this great city?”
19As a sign of grief, they threw dust on their heads. Weeping and mourning, they cried out: “How terrible, how terrible for the great city! Everyone who owned ships at sea became rich from her costly treasures, but in a single hour she has been destroyed!”
20“Celebrate her fall, heaven! Celebrate, God’s holy people, his commissioned messengers, and his prophets, because God has judged her for what she did to you.”
21Then a powerful angel picked up a stone like a huge millstone and threw it into the sea, saying: “With this same violence, Babylon, the great city, will be thrown down and never found again.
22The music of harpists, singers, flute players, and trumpet players will never be heard in you again. No craftsperson of any trade will ever be found in you again, and the sound of a mill will never be heard in you again.
23The light of a lamp will never shine in you again, and the voices of a groom and bride will never be heard in you again. Your merchants were the most powerful people on earth, and your magic spells led every nation astray.
24The blood of prophets and God’s holy people was found in the city, along with the blood of everyone slaughtered on the earth.”