Charles Ellicott Commentary Revelation 16:18

"and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunders; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since there were men upon the earth, so great an earthquake, so mighty." — Revelation 16:18 (ASV)

And there were voices . . .—There is some variety in the order of the words in different manuscripts. There were lightnings, and voices, and thunders (Revelation 11:19); there was a great earthquake, such as was not from the time there was a man upon the earth.

The earthquake, which is the shaking down of the kingdom of evil , completes the overthrow for which the earlier judgments were precursors. The throne of the wild beast has been visited, the center of his power smitten; now the metropolis of his empire is about to fall.

And the great city (that is, Babylon, the symbol of the world-power’s capital) became into three parts. It lost its power of cohesion. The three evil spirits endeavored to unite all powers in one grand assault, but there is no natural cohesion among those whose only bond is hatred of good. The first convulsion shakes them to pieces, and the cities of the nations fall. Every subordinate power in which the earthly element was mingled is overthrown in the earthquake, even as every tree which the Heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up (Matthew 15:13); and great Babylon was remembered before God, etc.

The features of the overthrow of Babylon are described more fully later on (Revelation 17:18), where the various aspects of evil in the great metropolis of the world-power are dealt with (Revelation 17:1–7; Revelation 18:1–3). The fall of Pagan Rome is but one illustration of the overthrow of Babylon.