Revelation - Chapter 18

¹ After this, I saw another angel come down from heaven, with great authority given to him; the earth shone with his glory.

² At the top of his voice he shouted, 'Babylon has fallen, Babylon the Great has fallen, and has become the haunt of devils and a lodging for every foul spirit and dirty, loathsome bird.

³ All the nations have drunk deep of the wine of her prostitution; every king on the earth has prostituted himself with her, and every merchant grown rich through her debauchery.'

⁴ Another voice spoke from heaven; I heard it say, 'Come out, my people, away from her, so that you do not share in her crimes and have the same plagues to bear.

⁵ Her sins have reached up to the sky, and God has her crimes in mind: treat her as she has treated others.

⁶ She must be paid double the amount she exacted. She is to have a doubly strong cup of her own mixture.

⁷ Every one of her pomps and orgies is to be matched by a torture or an agony. I am enthroned as queen, she thinks; I am no widow and will never know bereavement.

⁸ For that, in one day, the plagues will fall on her: disease and mourning and famine. She will be burned to the ground. The Lord God who has condemned her is mighty.'

⁹ 'There will be mourning and weeping for her by the kings of the earth who have prostituted themselves with her and held orgies with her. They see the smoke as she burns,

¹⁰ while they keep at a safe distance through fear of her anguish. They will say: Mourn, mourn for this great city, Babylon, so powerful a city, in one short hour your doom has come upon you.

¹¹ 'There will be weeping and distress over her among all the traders of the earth when no one is left to buy their cargoes of goods;

¹² their stocks of gold and silver, jewels and pearls, linen and purple and silks and scarlet; all the sandalwood, every piece in ivory or fine wood, in bronze or iron or marble;

¹³ the cinnamon and spices, the myrrh and ointment and incense; wine, oil, flour and corn; their stocks of cattle, sheep, horses and chariots, their slaves and their human cargo.

¹⁴ 'All the fruits you had set your hearts on have failed you; gone for ever, never to return again, is your life of magnificence and ease.

¹⁵ 'The traders who had made a fortune out of her will be standing at a safe distance through fear of her anguish, mourning and weeping.

¹⁶ They will be saying: Mourn, mourn for this great city; for all the linen and purple and scarlet that you wore, for all your finery of gold and jewels and pearls;

¹⁷ your huge riches are all destroyed within a single hour.' All the captains and seafaring men, sailors and all those who make a living from the sea kept a safe distance,

¹⁸ watching the smoke as she burned, and crying out, 'Has there ever been a city as great as this!'

¹⁹ They threw dust on their heads and said, with tears and groans: 'Mourn, mourn for this great city whose lavish living has made a fortune for every owner of a sea-going ship, ruined within a single hour.

²⁰ 'Now heaven, celebrate her downfall, and all you saints, apostles and prophets: God has given judgement for you against her.'

²¹ Then a powerful angel picked up a boulder like a great millstone, and as he hurled it into the sea, he said, 'That is how the great city of Babylon is going to be hurled down, never to be seen again.

²² Never again in you will be heard the song of harpists and minstrels, the music of flute and trumpet; never again will craftsmen of every skill be found in you or the sound of the handmill be heard;

²³ never again will shine the light of the lamp in you, never again will be heard in you the voices of bridegroom and bride. Your traders were the princes of the earth, all the nations were led astray by your sorcery.

²⁴ In her was found the blood of prophets and saints, and all the blood that was ever shed on earth.'

Book of Revelation Chapters

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