Revelation 18:9-20

2025 Aug 21 – Rev18-9-20

I find it of interest that after the fall of a capital city, that power would choose to marshal a last stand after reading this. Yet, that is what will happen. Last time, we saw the perspective of Heaven at the fall of the enemy capital, and this time, we will see the perspective of those who considered her a proverbial jewel in the crown of the planet. We will say more as the theme develops in the text. Suffice it to say that last time, we saw Heaven’s perspective, and this time, we see Earth’s perspective. All that we last time would have considered good news is considered bad news by the denizens of the damned.

The lament of the world at complete global collapse is inherently selfish, as we will see from the three groups of individuals that I identified from this lament. Because we have more text than usual to consider, I’m going to forgo the usual introductory remarks and jump right into the text.

I broke the text into the following thought-unit paragraphs:

KV14: Worldly Luxury Passes Away

14: The fruit you long for has gone from you, and all things that were luxurious and splendid have passed away from you and men will no longer find them.

9-10: The Lament of Kings

11-16: The Lament of Merchants

17-19: The Lament of Seafaring Men

20: The Response of Heaven

Because of information like this, I need to remind myself that I should be responding like all of Heaven does and not lament the loss of luxury, privilege, and lifestyle as these individuals will. By way of contrast to what we will see in this study, as believers, our lives and privileges are secured in and by Christ, although we may have temporary trials that the Apostle Paul tells us in Romans 8:18, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” All of this now is a trial run. All the fear we experience is nothing. All the financial loss, all of the sickness, the tiredness, the stuff that the “name-it-and-claim-it” people mistakenly insist we can and should have, is nothing at all when compared with the glory that is to come after we are done here. Because of this, we should live in hope, and we should live in hope regardless of how we view eschatology and events to come. We should endeavour to live according to the laws and rules that Christ has in His coming kingdom as a part of those “already-but-not-yet” end-time events that our Lord Jesus inaugurated when He was here the first time. He is coming again, and that matters. We are coming up to the events where eschatology will no longer be much of a real issue, and we are nearing that set of events in Revelation 19. Here, this is detail of the events of which we have read from chapters 4 through 15, as the world itself is plunged into the worst events history has seen since humanity came into being by the will of Him who has punished Babylon so severely. Let’s get into the text and see what that means.

KV14: Worldly Luxury Passes Away

14: The fruit you long for has gone from you, and all things that were luxurious and splendid have passed away from you and men will no longer find them.

I can hear the song in my mind by the Rolling Stones, “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.” This will become the reality for everyone on the planet. Think about this. All of humanity, which has sworn its loyalty to the Beast and his system, is covered in horrible suppurating pustules that have no cure. The seas and the fresh water have been turned into the blood of a dead man. It is clotting and congealing, and stinking, making navigation by water impossible, and has killed all aquatic life. The people of Earth have been given blood to drink, and they deserve it for the blood they have spilled in killing those who will not pledge loyalty to the beast or take his mark, but will only follow the true and living God. They have been scorched by the sun, the kingdom of the Earth under the Beast has been darkened, possibly spiritually AND physically, the Euphrates River has dried up, and the kings of the East are on their way to the final battle of Har-Megiddo with as much speed as they can muster. If the seventh bowl has been poured out on the air, there has been the largest seismic event in history, many will have died under buildings that have collapsed or have fallen into holes of the earth, possibly into magma itself, or have died because of the volcanic activity that will certainly be associated with this, or the tsunamis of clotting blood on the seashores. When I thought about this, only one word came to my mind: hellscape. And humanity still cannot seem to grasp what is happening, why it is happening, or who is causing it. We truly deserve what is coming, but for Christ. Let’s jump into the text here.

9-10: The Lament of Kings

I alluded a bit earlier to groups of people I identified, and I said there were three, but I wasn’t thinking about a fourth group that will be seen at the end of the text this evening. Three of them are on earth and seeing this as bad news, and form three verses of what forms a sad, sad song known as Lament for Babylon. You won’t see it in any top-40 charts, but it is the biggest lament of all time. The first group of mourners we see is the Kings of the Earth. Is this the same as the 10 kings? Is it the 7 from the city? Is it both? I don’t know, but I would think it is anyone who had authority of any kind in the world system of the Beast. Let’s see what they say as they sing their sad, sad song.

9: And the kings of the earth, who committed acts of immorality and lived sensuously with her, will weep and lament over her when they see the smoke of her burning,

Here are the men who metaphorically committed their acts of adultery and wanton luxury with the whore Babylon. They gave themselves to the system of the Beast and pledged their loyalty to Antichrist. This world system, which began, at least in part, as a religious system, came from the apostate church that, through its own syncretism, allowed the inclusion of all other belief systems in itself, and has finally been served up the consequences of its own actions. One commentator suggests, “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.”
Think about that as we contrast its sorrow at the fall of Babylon with how the world rejoiced over the public murder of the two witnesses in Revelation 11:10, which says, “And those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and celebrate; and they will send gifts to one another, because these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth.” Another (Josh Peck from Prophecy Watchers) suggests that the gift-giving may be in observance of the Jewish festival of Purim, but that is speculation. The point here is that as much joy as the world felt at that, they will feel that kind of sorrow at this event. Why? It seems that the carnal minds of men relish a religion like that of the apostate church as an opiate to conscience, leaving the sinner license to indulge his lusts. It is both horrifying and disgusting.
Those kings, whom the whore has flattered into spiritual adultery with her, which we know is an expression biblically of idolatry, as long as they were obedient to her, were allowed their tyranny to ride over their citizenry like pavement stones. Now those who traded their goods and abilities for her indulgences in despotism stand by and mourn their former and fallen lover. Next verse.

10: standing at a distance because of the fear of her torment, saying, ‘Woe, woe, the great city, Babylon, the strong city! For in one hour your judgment has come.’

All of those who committed these unholy deeds with the whore, as intimately close as they were with her, now stand at a distance, terrified that they may have to partake of her torment in judgment. No one dares to approach because of that fear. There are other passages that may be seen as examples of this, or may, in fact, be referring to this in the Old Testament.
The prophet Ezekiel wrote of the ancient city of Tyre in Eze. 27:33-36, “When your wares went out from the seas, You satisfied many peoples; With the abundance of your wealth and your merchandise You enriched the kings of earth. Now that you are broken by the seas In the depths of the waters, Your merchandise and all your company Have fallen in the midst of you. All the inhabitants of the coastlands Are appalled at you, And their kings are horribly afraid; They are troubled in countenance. The merchants among the peoples hiss at you; You have become terrified And you will cease to be forever.” This is extremely similar to what our text is saying this evening. These kings are terrified because without Babylon, they are now nothing.
I can feel that remark a bit, but it means the opposite to the faithful child of God. When the Satan starts screaming at you, “Who do you think you are?” then there is a good answer I’m learning, thanks to a song by Casting Crowns. “I’m just a Nobody, trying to tell Everybody all about Somebody who saved my soul!” Beloved, it’s okay to be a nobody in this world. Never mind that the world wants to exclude us and put us at the back of the line, and in with all the other “not-quites” and “never-get-it-rights.” For the world, that might be where we belong. In Christ’s kingdom, it will be different, though we don’t really know how yet. More about this later.

Here, at the end for these kings, it seems like the false religious system that was torn apart by the ten kings and the Beast, with the loss of the harlot, will fall in with the Antichrist himself and the loss of her will be made up for with his own great boastful lies about himself and how they all fit in. We will see when we get to the relevant portion of Chapter 19. Next paragraph.

11-16: The Lament of Merchants

Who were the merchants? These were all of the people who made their living (and a very luxurious one, no doubt) from the merchandise that was sold through and controlled by Babylon and the system in that city. These now also stand on the shore looking on from afar because they also do not want to fall victim to the nastiness they can now see with their own eyes happening to Babylon.

With all of the judgments of God upon the Antichrist and his kingdom, these merchants will lose everything in the associated complete economic collapse of the world system that will move humanity from the technological pinnacle to which we seem to be headed now, down to the very bottom of stone-age technology. Nobody will have any use for the merchandise very soon now. Again, let’s look at the text.

11: And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn over her, because no one buys their cargoes any more—

Note here that the merchants aren’t weeping for the whore. Not for the city or the system, or the Antichrist at all. They are weeping because they have lost the ability to sell their wares to people. Nobody will want all of the things they buy. This is sorrow for personal loss, not the loss of an intimate companion. This seems to be a theme. They aren’t sorry for the loss of a loved one, everyone is just busy feeling sorry for themselves. There are some things to note here.

“Cargoes.” The word in the Greek text is a masculine, singular, accusative noun. What that means is that it is the direct object of the verb, in this case “buys” in the text. They are sad because no one will buy their stuff, regardless of what that stuff is. I can kind of empathize. My hours at the flooring store were cut in half because it is a seasonal slowdown, and because there are fewer customers who want our area rugs, for example, the store has less money to pay employees’ hours. This will be a case of this, but in totality. And wait until you see what they are selling. This will take a couple of verses, because there are 29 different categories, some of which are extremely poignant.

12: cargoes of gold and silver and precious stones and pearls and fine linen and purple and silk and scarlet, and every kind of citron wood and every article of ivory and every article made from very costly wood and bronze and iron and marble,

The first broad category is what I would call adornments. Gold, silver, precious stones, and pearls are used to make jewelry for people. For example, my wedding ring is called white Gold. We use these kinds of things to make memories and beautify our lives today. I suspect it will be the same then, even though there will be a distinctly sinful bent to things.
The second broad category of product would be cloth. Linen, purple cloth, silk, scarlet cloth, all of these things were valued in the ancient world by royalty and religious orders for producing clothing to wear for their ceremonies and rites. Again, there is nothing new under the sun, says Solomon in Ecclesiastes. Good old King Schlomo. Clothing will still be needed then, linen is used in things like bedsheets and even curtains, dyed cloth will always be useful for that and the occasional wearable lampshade.
A third category could be carveables. Citron wood was a sweet-smelling wood that the Romans called citrus. It was used for incense, as well as ornaments. Ivory came from the tusks of elephants and was able to be carved into ornaments as well.
A fourth category is also here, and I would call it flooring! All of these things are used. In flooring. Expensive woods, Bronze separators, iron separators and affixers like screws or nails, and I love a good marble tile. I know, that’s me imposing my own experience on the items. They can be used for much more, but like I said, I do work in a flooring store.
I will say here near the beginning of the list that there may have been some kind of economic recovery from the days at the beginning of this period of tribulation for the whole world. In those days, remembering the third seal, that a day’s wage at that time would buy a day’s food, or perhaps food for three people if you weren’t fussy about quality (which I have to be for health reasons). All that would mean in terms of the merchandise itself is that it was there for those who could afford it. That third seal in Revelation 6 makes reference to “not hurt the oil and wine.” Luxury items will exist, but they just won’t be available to most at that time. Here, these individuals have become incredibly wealthy as merchandisers, that is, people who sell merchandise. If you need it, they can get it, at a price. It is like today, but with higher currency values. Moving on.

13: and cinnamon and spice and incense and perfume and frankincense and wine and olive oil and fine flour and wheat and cattle and sheep, and cargoes of horses and chariots and slaves and human lives.

Another category of merchandise is scents. Anything from room air fresheners to incense for religious rites, perfumes for seduction or masking body odour. Cinnamon, I would note, can also be used by type-2 diabetics for blood-sugar control. Yes, I am a type-2 diabetic. I also don’t care for cinnamon, and I don’t know what to make of that.
The sixth loose category I can see is stuff related to food. Wine and olive oil are used in drinking (wine) and food preparation (both). So are fine flour, wheat, cattle (beef), and sheep (lamb and mutton). As I was typing this, I was starting to get hungry. And I could smell the stew I was making in the crockpot upstairs from my basement office. Sometimes it sucks to be me.
The next category can at least in part be considered military cargo. Horses and chariots are old-style military equipment. Slaves were used in war also, to man the dangerous positions, like the oars of warships, loading the ballistae, like that. However, the last category I find most disturbing.
The Greek says, “σωμάτων καὶ ψυχὰς ἀνθρώπων.” Literally, this means, “slaves and souls of men.” The King James Version is right on this one. Our translations try to soften it for us; it is like they think we are too fragile to know the truth, and I wish they would stop that. What the mention of BOTH “slaves” and “souls” means is that BOTH were merchandise. The physical body was bought and sold as a commodity, and also the spiritual side of men and women was somehow commoditized. Given that humanity was, according to the US Constitution, created with “inalienable human rights,” those being “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” that seems oppressive, in fact. This “liberating” system of Antichrist must look good on the surface, but in fact is oppressive and tyrannical to most who live under it, mark of loyalty or not, and especially if not.
The categories I have formed here were mine and only to group things into easily understandable and hopefully more memorable categories. My point here is that literally everything under this Beast system will be for sale. There will be no Restrainer (increasingly, I view this as the Holy Spirit in believers), and “anything goes” will be the rule of the day. I really want to miss this part unless it’s just watching from a distance in safety.

14: The fruit you long for has gone from you, and all things that were luxurious and splendid have passed away from you and men will no longer find them.

The speaker here is addressing the merchants as they stand on the shore of the sea, lamenting the loss of their merchandise to the just judgments of God. He scolds them and gives them quite a reality check. “The fruit you long for has gone from you,” he says. I suspect he means, “Never to return.” The Greek may be translated, “thy autumn-ripe fruits of the lust (eager desire) of the soul.” The benefits and wealth they covet are in view here, and they will never come again.
“…all the things that were sumptuous and dainty have passed away from you…”. In other words, all the beneficial and good things. All the nutritious and beautiful things looked for in the food and items are now forever gone. They will not come their way again, as we will see. They have “passed away” in the text, a better translation of ἀπώλετο than “have departed” today. The KJV has the Elizabethan English that is so beautiful to the ear, and it may have meant that at the time, but English moves on. Today, the polite way of saying something has been “completely destroyed” is that it has “passed away.” It has died. The rabbit kicked the bucket. Like that.
“…and you will no longer find them.” This is really depressing news, Beloved. At least for the merchants. Those things you loved, those things you got incredibly wealthy on, those things that you were happy to distribute no matter the consequences to the men you made merchandise of, these will never come your way again. You have tasted your last of them forever. Forever is a very long time. As we say in today’s English, “Wow, sucks to be you.”

15: The merchants of these things, who became rich from her, will stand at a distance because of the fear of her torment, weeping and mourning,

Here, the angel reveals to John the real reason these merchants weep. They recognize that they have lost their stuff, they will never get it back, and they don’t want any part of the torment she now undergoes. They weep [κλαίοντες], that is, they wail and have tears and other external expressions of grief, and they mourn [πενθοῦντες], that is, they are sorrowful in heart, they feel sadness and grief. These are internal symptoms of grief. These merchants are truly sad at the passing away of their dainties in the destruction of the great city. They aren’t sad at the death of the system; they are sad because they lost their stuff!

16: saying, ‘Woe, woe, the great city, she who was clothed in fine linen and purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls;

Here is a second-degree elevation of a word, οὐαὶ, οὐαὶ. Woe, woe. Like our Lord Jesus would say, “Truly, truly.” The word might be considered an example of onomatopoeia. That’s a word that is associated with what is named. In Hebrew, it is an expression of “Woe,” or “Alas.” It is pronounced, Oy! It is always used as a denunciation of some kind. This word, in 8:13, is elevated to the third level of communication, the divine. It is said, “Then I looked, and I heard an eagle flying in midheaven, saying with a loud voice, ‘Woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth, because of the remaining blasts of the trumpet of the three angels who are about to sound!'” This was God warning the Earth: bad things are coming, and they asked for it.
However, this double “woe” is over the great city of Babylon, that supposed “shining city on seven hills, bedecked by purple, white, and scarlet colours, perhaps the colour of the flags, reflecting the light of the sun and moon, bejeweled by the finest stones and pearls, but really is nothing but a prostitute hawking her services. These merchants will feel real sadness and express it internally and externally, but only at their loss and fear of having to undergo her torments.

The merchant class here will hang its collective head in shame and fear because it can no longer buy and sell and make an exceedingly good living off the proceeds. God have mercy on us all.

17-19: The Lament of Seafaring Men

I love a good sea shanty. This is the opposite of that. This is a lament from all who travel on or make their living from the sea. As the shanty goes, “A sailor ain’t a sailor, ain’t a sailor anymore.” The seas have been turned to clotting, stinking, rotting blood. Navigation is no longer possible. All the marine life has died. All the things that were shipped, including passengers, are gone; there is no ability to sail or to ship goods anymore. There has been a total economic collapse on Earth. There are limited food stores. There is limited drinking water. Everything is dark. The sores that run and pop painfully won’t quit. Sit down, me lads, and sing your sad, sad songs of lament for the sea and the way of the sea. What will be faced here is worse than sailing with Davy Jones on the Flying Dutchman, if you’re up on your pirate lore. Let’s see what the text tells us.

17: for in one hour such great wealth has been laid waste!’ And every shipmaster and every passenger and sailor, and as many as make their living by the sea, stood at a distance,

In one hour. The language may be literal or figurative here; it is impossible for me to tell. What is intended here is that this is a very short amount of time this will take place. The reason it is impossible for me to tell is because of what it says in 1 John 2:18. which says, “Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour.” It is the same word, and in that test is used figuratively. That hour from John has lasted a little over 1900 years to date. That cannot have been a literal hour, because it wasn’t. The debate over this, in my thinking, is nonsensical. It means a short span of time. Possibly about 7 years, understand? Maybe not, but the connection is there, in English, never mind the Greek.
The word used for wealth is material from the Greek use of πλοῦτος, but it also has cultural and metaphorical attachments. Both can be true at the same time. This was the capital city of the entire world! Its culture, its society, its religious life are all gone as the city becomes a smoking hole, seen from the vantage of the men of the sea, now realizing that there is no longer use for their services because they are all now dead men walking and are beginning to realize it. The center of their employment and living is made desolate before them.
It says something interesting here. Every “helmsman” should be the translation. Shipmaster sounds in today’s English like the captain of the ship, but the word can be translated as “pilot,” the guy who steers the ship. But regardless of which bridge officer to whom this refers, all of them are included. Every passenger (the text itself suggests commuter) stands with jaws slack, looking on. Every sailor, or as many who make their living from the sea, stands at a distance. Next verse.

18: and were crying out as they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, ‘What city is like the great city?’

All these cried out at the sight of the burning, smoking hole of the capital city. Memories flood them all, prompting cries made aloud, “What city is like the great city?” The phrase is meant to communicate awe at the mention of the city. In their minds, and perhaps in reality, there is nothing that could be compared to this city. Perhaps there had never been one like her in history. Early commentator Athanaeius said of Rome that she was “the epitome of the world.” And now she has fallen in a very short span of time.

19: And they threw dust on their heads and were crying out, weeping and mourning, saying, ‘Woe, woe, the great city, in which all who had ships at sea became rich by her wealth, for in one hour she has been laid waste!’

The men of the sea grieve with public signs of grief from the days of John’s writing this. They threw dust on their own heads, an expression something like “cover me in the dust of the Earth because this sight kills me.” They wept aloud in mourning. They say the same thing as the merchants and kings: “Woe, woe.” “Calamity, calamity.” “Disaster, disaster.” No one can deny it, or in fact do anything about it. Now stop and think. What is this destruction really about? It is about everyone continually rejecting God, who is gracious and gives an extended time for people to repent of their wicked lives and turn to Jesus Christ in faith and walk with Him. He sends His people out to do this time and again. At first, they were ignored, and then tolerated, and finally, killed or imprisoned just to shut them up. Time and again, the wicked world rejects Christ in favour of their own comfort, thinking that they will cross the bridge where they must deal with life and its sins in the future. That future just ran out. God has made the margin call on sin and is calling all debts now to be settled by the end of this business. Sorry, it is like a financial transaction. There is a price to pay, and there is a deadline for that payment to be dealt with one way or the other, like it or not. And we all owe the King, who has financed all of our lives. Either accept that He has paid the price for you and avail yourselves of it, or pay it yourself. Hint: there is no amount you can pay to pay the price for your lifetime of sinning against a holy God, let alone pay for the original sin of disobedience, for which humanity is still called to account! Make your decision now and avoid the rush, my friends. Now, you can do it willingly and avoid this horrid world. Doing it then may cost you everything, as it has all of these men of the sea.
All the ships at sea became rich through the trade the city created for the world. Nobody (except God and His people) was left out! Everyone made a good and comfortable living, and now all people are beginning to realize that the evil and empty lifestyle has a price, and it will be far too high for them to pay. The good life they had created for themselves through the world system of the great city has come crashing down faster than they can compensate for the loss. They have lost their entire ability to earn a living. They have lost everything. All the oarsmen have abandoned their ships. All the sailors and helmsmen on the beach are now standing on the shore, staring, jaws open and slack, eyes bulging out of their heads. They throw dust on their own heads. Some have legs that fail them; they collapse and roll in ashes. The swiftness of the whore’s destruction is stunning and is complete, and the smoke of her torment goes up forever and ever (14:11).

Something common to all three groups is that though they loved the “wanton luxury” in which they could participate with the whore, they have no interest in participating in the consequences to her for her actions, even though they were participants on some level. They love the pleasures and profits but have no interest in the plagues. What a shock, right? However, any way you slice this, the riches of the evil world in general, here, specifically under the Beast, in the end will come to absolutely nothing. What it will do is make the vengeance that God takes for His martyrs and other faithful servants who have always been maligned by the world harder for the wicked to bear. And everyone in this scene is wicked so far. One commentator points out, “Death, at any rate, will soon end their commerce, and all the riches of the ungodly will be exchanged, not only for the coffin and the worm, but for the fire that cannot be quenched.” And remember, this is all a very richly deserved consequence for the rebellious actions against the holy God of the universe. This is the response of the world to God’s judgment on Babylon, the capital of the world and its tyrannical system of suppression and slavery. Now we see a response with a marked difference.

20: The Response of Heaven

From the very start, this response is the only response of those on the side of Heaven and Christ the Saviour. It is striking by way of contrast to the laments of the kings, merchants and seafaring people. Let’s see what it says.

20: Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you saints and apostles and prophets, because God has pronounced judgment for you against her.

Remember that this is the nameless voice from Heaven, and it might be an angel, but many suspect it is the voice of God to John (v.4). He is saying that the proper response of the saints at the permanent judging and punishing of the system of the enemy himself is to be that of Joy. The Greek word Εὐφραίνου is in passive, present, imperative tense. It is the second-person singular. In English, we take away the actual word “you” as understood, but it is a command (imperative). Rejoice! Have joy, cheer, gladness; be happy! The sentence itself tells us who should have this happiness and joy. You saints, that is, the most common reference in the New Testament for God’s people, the “holy ones.” The Apostles, that is, special hand-picked chosen messengers of Jesus Himself for the establishment of the church and teaching of the saints. The prophets, that is, all the obedient servants who spoke the Word of God to the disobedient and rebellious people to which He sent them, regardless of the cost. This is the addressed crowd commanded to be filled with joy and happiness. Why?
When a clause begins with the word “because,” you can know that a reason for the previous statements is here. Be filled with joy because God Himself has carried out the judgment He alone is qualified to pronounce upon the false religious system that was used to establish the luxury of the elites of that day, the kings, the corporations (merchants), and the carriers (people at sea, of course). He has sentenced the criminals for the crime, and is now executing the sentence and carrying it out. It should cause the hearts of all believers everywhere to be filled with joy that these criminals will never again be able to rise again and work against the will of the living God and His people as they do now.

This has been an analysis of those who lament the “loss” of the beast system and all of its benefits to humanity. It never truly benefitted all of humanity because it excluded some folks based on a partiality system based on religious faith. From all the justice that will be delivered to the Antichrist and his servants in the destruction of his capital city and system, I cannot call this a loss. I call it divine justice, and it will be completed by Him who sits on the Throne and the Lamb. God will deliver the final stroke through seven judgment bowls Himself, and then the end will come.

That’s what I saw in the text this time.