Charles Ellicott Commentary Revelation 18

And after these things . . .—Or, better, After these things (omit “and”) I saw another angel coming down, having great power (or, authority—entrusted to him for the work against Babylon); and the earth was illumined by (literally, out of) his glory.

The light that shines from the heavenly messenger shines like day upon the tawdry splendour of Babylon, and shows that what was admired was only worthless and corrupt. In his brief, but rousing call, he proclaims it to be so.

And he cried . . .—We must omit “mightily,” and translate it as: And he cried in a mighty voice, saying, Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, and is become an habitation of demons, and a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hated bird.

Those who walk in darkness, and whose eyes the god of this world has blinded through their lusts, look only on the material side, upon prosperous times, large revenues, rapidly developing resources. The great city of the world looks fair and glorious in their eyes, and even the godly are dazzled by her beauty. But when the light of heaven shines, her fall is seen to be inevitable, for she is seen to be hateful: her palaces are prisons, her highest wisdom little more than low cunning, her most exalted intelligence ignoble, and her sweetest songs discordant cries. The evil spirit, welcomed back, has come in seven-fold power, for the dry places afford no rest to those who still love sin and the pleasures of sin.

The description in this verse is drawn largely from Isaiah 13:21-22; it is a picture of desolation and degradation, but it has its moral counterpart.

For all nations have drunk . . .—Better, Because by the wrath of her fornication (Compare to Revelation 14:8, and Note there) all the nations have drunk (or, according to another reading, have fallen; the readings are similar: the drinking of it leads to their degradation and fall), and the kings of the earth committed (not “have committed”) fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth grew rich from the strength of her luxury.

She has been an enemy to mankind viewed in three great aspects: nations, kings, and merchants. She has brought delirium upon nations; she has reduced kings; she has bribed merchants: her sins are strong sins; with both hands earnestly has she sinned.

Voice from heaven . . .—Read: Voice out of heaven, saying, Come forth out of her, my people, that you do not partake in her sins, and that you do not receive of her plagues.

The voice is not said to be that of another angel. It is not necessary to say whose voice it is; that it is a voice of divine love giving warning is enough.

The “coming forth” is not to be understood as a bodily exodus from Rome. It is, rather, the warning, which is so necessary in every corrupt state of society, to have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness; to practice that separation from the spirit of the world that is essential, lest we be entangled in the meshes of its sinful habits.

This duty of separation may sometimes lead to a literal exodus and even, under the pressure of overwhelming necessity, to secession from a world-corrupted church; but the jeopardy lies in attachment to the world-spirit (1 John 2:15). The parallel warnings in Jeremiah 51:6, Jeremiah 51:45, and Zechariah 2:6-7 should be read. The story of Lot in Sodom, however, best illustrates the spirit of the passage (Genesis 19:0), for it is participation in sin that must be primarily guarded against.

On verses 4-20:

The voice out of heaven warns the faithful to leave her, and describes her fall.

For her sins have reached . . .—Better, For her sins have reached as far as heaven. The idea is of a great heap firmly fastened, and towering, like another Babel, as far as heaven (Compare to 2 Chronicles 28:9 and Ezra 9:6). The idea is more than that of the cry of sin reaching heaven, as in the case of Sodom (Genesis 18:20–21); the sins themselves, many and imperial, have touched the face of heaven. God has remembered her . Sometimes the oppressed have thought that God had forgotten the voice of the enemy (Psalms 74:10–23); but the long-suffering of the Lord is salvation (2 Peter 3:8–18).