Revelation

Fall of Babylon 

After this, I saw another angel descending from heaven. His authority was so great that the entire earth was illuminated with his glory.

He shouted with a loud voice: “Fallen is Babylon the great! Fallen! She has become a den of demons, a refuge for every unclean spirit, a nest for any filthy and disgusting bird. 

She has intoxicated all nations with the wine of her lewdness, committed fornication with the kings of the earth, and filled the world’s merchants with her reckless abundance and wealth.” 

Then, I heard another voice from heaven: “Come out of her, my people, so you do not share in her sins, and thus share in her punishments; 

for her sins have piled up to heaven, and God has remembered her crimes. 

Repay her as she has repaid others, pay her twice for what she has done. Let her drink a double portion of what she has inflicted on others. 

Give her as much torment and grief as she has enjoyed in her reckless living. For she said to herself, ‘I sit as queen; I am not a widow, and I will never mourn!’ 

Therefore, her plagues will come suddenly—death, mourning, and famine. She will be consumed by fire because the Lord, the mighty Judge, has pronounced judgment on her.”

The kings who shared her luxury and committed adultery with her will see the smoke as she burns, and they will weep and lament. 

They will, nevertheless, keep their distance, terrified at her punishment, and exclaim:

“Alas, alas! Great city that you are,

O Babylon, seat of power!

Your doom has come in a single hour!”

The merchants of the world will mourn over her, for they will lose a market for their goods—

their cargoes of gold and silver, precious stones and pearls, fine linen and purple garments, silk and scarlet cloth, fragrant wood, ivory pieces and expensive furniture, bronze, iron and marble, 

cinnamon and spices, perfume, myrrh and frankincense, wine and olive oil, fine flour and grain, cattle and sheep, horses and carriages, and slaves, that is, human beings. 

They will say:

“Gone is the fruit you longed for.

Gone are your luxury and splendor.

Never will you recover them, never!”

The merchants who dealt in these goods, who grew rich from business with the city, will stand at a safe distance for fear of her punishment. Weeping and mourning, 

they will cry out:

“Woe, woe to the great city,

to the linen and purple and scarlet you wore,

to your gold and pearls, your finery,

your great wealth, destroyed in an hour!”Every captain and navigator, every sailor and seafarer, will stand afar, 

crying out, on seeing the smoke going up as the city burns to the ground. “What city could have compared with this one?” 

They will pour dust on their heads and cry out in mourning:

“Alas, alas, great city,

where all who had ships at sea

grew rich through her trade!

In an hour, she has been devastated.”

Rejoice over her, O heavens!

Rejoice, prophets, saints, and apostles!

God has rendered justice to you.

A mighty angel picked up a boulder, the size of a large millstone, and threw it into the sea, saying:

“With such violence will Babylon, the great city, be thrown down, never again to be seen.

Never again will the tunes of harpists, minstrels, trumpeters, and flutists be heard in you. Never again will an artisan of any trade be found in you. Never again will the noise of the mill be heard. 

Never again will the light of a lamp shine in you. The voice of the bridegroom and the bride will never again be heard in you. Because your traders were the world’s great, and you led the nations astray by your magic spell. 

In this city was found blood of prophets and saints—yes, the blood of all who have been slain on the earth.”