All those who gained their living by the sea, ship-masters, mariners, and every one that saileth any whither, stood afar off and cried, “What city is like the great city?” And they cast dust upon their heads, weeping and mourning, the sign of their deep though worldly sorrow, saying, “Woe, woe, the great city, wherein all that had their ships in the sea were made rich by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.” In this triple mourning of the kings of the earth, of the merchants, and of the seamen, is shown the wide relations of Babylon, too wide in fact for any single city. The darkly shadowed terms of poetic description used throughout the chapter, set forth the completeness of her destruction, and are an echo from the Fall of Tyre in Ezekiel's prophecy (chs. 26-28).
(6) A Call to Heaven and to the Church to Rejoice, Ch. 18:20
By a voice, evidently from above, the holy are bidden to rejoice, i. e. heaven with its inhabitants, and the saints or the church, and her two highest orders of ministers in the past, the apostles and the prophets, are called upon to rejoice because God hath judged Babylon with the judgment which is her due for her treatment of the saints. This invitation to the “saints, the apostles, and the prophets”, to rejoice over the judgment of Babylon, which to that age doubtless meant Rome, is regarded by some as a possible allusion to the martyrdom of the Apostles Peter and Paul who met death under Nero.[529]
(7) The Symbol of Her Irretrievable Ruin, Ch. 18:21-24
A strong or mighty angel, taking up a stone like a great millstone, casts it into the sea as the sign of her total extinction, and rehearses the fate of the city in the ominous words of ancient prophecy, which are here enlarged and made more terrible (cf. Jer. 51:61-64). The symbolism used throughout this chapter, it will be noted, is largely drawn from the Old Testament prophecies concerning the ancient cities of Babylon and Tyre. “And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all that have been slain upon the earth.” Thus in terms that are as wide as the earth and as far-reaching as history, is set forth the sin of the godless and unbelieving world in all ages, which concludes the pronouncement of the judgment upon Babylon; and the judgment seems to belong properly in seven parts as a sign of its completeness.
B The Triumph of the Redeemed, Ch. 19:1-10
A hymn of praise (the Hallelujah Chorus), such as follows each crisis in the Apocalypse, and forms a relief to the sombreness of the visions, is sung in heaven by a great voice of a great multitude as the sequel to the fall of the city and the lament of the world—the seventh and last great chorus in the Revelation (see [App'x C]): and then the marriage supper of the Lamb is announced for the delight of the redeemed in heaven. The final triumph, it will be seen, is here viewed as a [pg 207] whole, without distinction of parts such as are found in the succeeding section which treats of the last things.