famine--instead of her luxurious delicacies ([Re 18:3], ).
fire--(See on [Re 17:16]). Literal fire may burn the literal city of Rome, which is situated in the midst of volcanic agencies. As the ground was cursed for Adam's sin, and the earth under Noah was sunk beneath the flood, and Sodom was burnt with fire, so may Rome be. But as the harlot is mystical (the whole faithless Church), the burning may be mainly mystical, symbolizing utter destruction and removal. Bengel is probably right in thinking Rome will once more rise to power. The carnal, faithless, and worldly elements in all churches, Roman, Greek, and Protestant, tend towards one common center, and prepare the way for the last form of the beast, namely, Antichrist. The Pharisees were in the main sound in creed, yet judgment fell on them as on the unsound Sadducees and half-heathenish Samaritans. So faithless and adulterous, carnal, worldly Protestant churches, will not escape for their soundness of creed.
the Lord--so B, C, Syriac, and Andreas. But A and Vulgate omit. "Strong" is the meaning of God's Hebrew name, "EL."
judgeth--But A, B, and C read the past tense (Greek, "krinas"), "who hath judged her": the prophetical past for the future: the charge in [Re 18:4] to God's people to come out of her implies that the judgment was not yet actually executed.
9. lived deliciously--Greek, "luxuriated." 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. Contrast the world's rejoicing over the dead bodies of the two witnesses ([Re 11:10]) who had tormented it by their faithfulness, with its lamentations over the harlot who had made the way to heaven smooth, and had been found a useful tool in keeping subjects in abject tyranny. Men's carnal mind relishes a religion like that of the apostate Church, which gives an opiate to conscience, while leaving the sinner license to indulge his lusts.
bewail her--A, B, C, Syriac, Coptic, and Cyprian omit "her."
10. God's judgments inspire fear even in the worldly, but it is of short duration, for the kings and great men soon attach themselves to the beast in its last and worst shape, as open Antichrist, claiming all that the harlot had claimed in blasphemous pretensions and more, and so making up to them for the loss of the harlot.
mighty--Rome in Greek means strength; though that derivation is doubtful.
11. shall--So. B. But A and C read the present, "weep and mourn."
merchandise--Greek, "cargo": wares carried in ships: ship-lading (compare [Re 18:17]). Rome was not a commercial city, and is not likely from her position to be so. The merchandise must therefore be spiritual, even as the harlot is not literal, but spiritual. She did not witness against carnal luxury and pleasure-seeking, the source of the merchants' gains, but conformed to them ([Re 18:7]). She cared not for the sheep, but for the wool. Professing Christian merchants in her lived as if this world not heaven, were the reality, and were unscrupulous as to the means of getting gain. Compare Notes, see on [Zec 5:4-11], on the same subject, the judgment on mystical Babylon's merchants for unjust gain. All the merchandise here mentioned occurs repeatedly in the Roman Ceremonial.
12. (See on [Re 17:4]).
stones ... pearls--Greek, "stone ... pearl."
fine linen--A, B, and C read Greek, "bussinou" for "bussou," that is, "fine linen manufacture" [Alford]. The manufacture for which Egypt (the type of the apostate Church, [Re 11:8]) was famed. Contrast "the fine linen" ([Eze 16:10]) put on Israel, and on the New Testament Church ([Re 19:8]), the Bride, by God ([Psa 132:9]).
thyine wood--the citrus of the Romans: probably the cypressus thyoyides, or the thuia articulata. "Citron wood" [Alford]. A sweet-smelling tree of Cyrene in Lybia, used for incense.
all manner vessels--Greek, "every vessel," or "furniture."
13. cinnamon--designed by God for better purposes: being an ingredient in the holy anointing oil, and a plant in the garden of the Beloved ([So 4:14]); but desecrated to vile uses by the adulteress ([Pr 7:17]).
odours--of incense. A, C, Vulgate, and Syriac prefix "and amomium" (a precious hair ointment made from an Asiatic shrub). English Version reading is supported by Coptic and Andreas, but not oldest manuscripts.
ointments--Greek, "ointment."
frankincense--Contrast the true "incense" which God loves ([Psa 141:2]; Mal 1:11).
fine flour--the similago of the Latins [Alford].
beasts--of burden: cattle.
slaves--Greek, "bodies."
souls of men--([Eze 27:13]). Said of slaves. Appropriate to the spiritual harlot, apostate Christendom, especially Rome, which has so often enslaved both bodies and souls of men. Though the New Testament does not directly forbid slavery, which would, in the then state of the world, have incited a slave revolt, it virtually condemns it, as here. Popery has derived its greatest gains from the sale of masses for the souls of men after death, and of indulgences purchased from the Papal chancery by rich merchants in various countries, to be retailed at a profit [Mosheim, III, 95, 96].
14. Direct address to Babylon.
the fruits that thy soul lusted after--Greek, "thy autumn-ripe fruits of the lust (eager desire) of the soul."
dainty--Greek, "fat": "sumptuous" in food.
goodly--"splendid," "bright," in dress and equipage.
departed--supported by none of our manuscripts. But A, B, C, Vulgate, Syriac, and Coptic read, "perished."
thou shalt--A, C, Vulgate, and Syriac read, "They (men) shall no more find them at all."
15. of these things--of the things mentioned, [Re 18:12], .
which--"who."
made rich by--Greek, "derived riches from her."
stand afar off for the fear--(Compare [Re 18:10]).
wailing--Greek, "mourning."
16. And--so Vulgate and Andreas. But A, B, and C omit.
decked--literally, "glided."
stones ... pearls--Greek, "stone ... pearl." B and Andreas read "pearls." But A and C, "pearl."
17. is come to naught--Greek, "is desolated."
shipmaster--Greek, "steersman," or "pilot."
all the company in ships--A, C, Vulgate, and Syriac read, "Every one who saileth to a place" (B has "... to the place"), every voyager. Vessels were freighted with pilgrims to various shrines, so that in one month (A.D. 1300) two hundred thousand pilgrims were counted in Rome [D'Aaubigne, Histoire de la Reformation]: a source of gain, not only to the Papal see, but to shipmasters, merchants, pilots, &c. These latter, however, are not restricted to those literally "shipmasters," &c., but mainly refer, in the mystical sense, to all who share in the spiritual traffic of apostate Christendom.
18. when they saw--Greek, "horontes." But A, B, C, and Andreas read, Greek, "blepontes," "looking at." Greek, "blepo," is to use the eyes, to look: the act of seeing without thought of the object seen. Greek, "horao," refers to the thing seen or presented to the eyes [Tittmann].
smoke--so B, C. But A reads "place."
What city is like--Compare the similar beast as to the beast, [Re 13:4]: so closely do the harlot and beast approximate one another. Contrast the attribution of this praise to God, to whom alone it is due, by His servants ([Ex 15:11]). Martial says of Rome, "Nothing is equal to her;" and Athenæus, "She is the epitome of the world."
19. wailing--"mourning."
that had ships--A, B, and C read, "that had their ships": literally, "the ships."