Revelation 18

²and I saw the glory of the God of Israel coming from the east. His voice was like the roar of many waters, and the earth shone with His glory.

²⁴For just as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other, so will be the Son of Man in His day.

¹Then one of the seven angels with the seven bowls came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the punishment of the great prostitute, who sits on many waters.

¹Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.

²For behold, darkness covers the earth, and thick darkness is over the peoples; but the Lord will rise upon you, and His glory will appear over you.

¹Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow above his head. His face was like the sun, and his legs were like pillars of fire.

²³And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, because the glory of God illuminates the city, and the Lamb is its lamp.

⁸Suddenly Babylon has fallen and been shattered. Wail for her; get her balm for her pain; perhaps she can be healed.

⁸Then a second angel followed, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, who has made all the nations drink the wine of the passion of her immorality.”

³⁷Babylon will become a heap of rubble, a haunt for jackals, an object of horror and scorn, without inhabitant.

³⁹So the desert creatures and hyenas will live there and ostriches will dwell there. It will never again be inhabited or lived in from generation to generation.

⁴⁰As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah along with their neighbors,” declares the Lord, “no one will dwell there; no man will abide there.

⁶⁰Jeremiah had written on a single scroll about all the disaster that would come upon Babylon—all these words that had been written concerning Babylon.

⁶¹And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, “When you get to Babylon, see that you read all these words aloud,

¹⁹The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed. And God remembered Babylon the great and gave her the cup of the wine of the fury of His wrath.

⁸Then a second angel followed, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, who has made all the nations drink the wine of the passion of her immorality.”

²The kings of the earth were immoral with her, and those who dwell on the earth were intoxicated with the wine of her immorality.”

⁹Then the kings of the earth who committed sexual immorality and lived in luxury with her will weep and wail at the sight of the smoke rising from the fire that consumes her.

²³The light of a lamp will never shine in you again, and the voices of a bride and bridegroom will never call out in you again. For your merchants were the great ones of the earth, because all the nations were deceived by your sorcery.”

⁷Babylon was a gold cup in the hand of the Lord, making the whole earth drunk. The nations drank her wine; therefore the nations have gone mad.

¹¹And the merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her, because there is no one left to buy their cargo—

¹²cargo of gold, silver, precious stones, and pearls; of fine linen, purple, silk, and scarlet; of all kinds of citron wood and every article of ivory, precious wood, bronze, iron, and marble;

¹⁷“Therefore come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.”

¹¹Depart, depart, go out from there! Touch no unclean thing; come out from it, purify yourselves, you who carry the vessels of the Lord.

⁶Flee from Babylon! Escape with your lives! Do not be destroyed in her punishment. For this is the time of the Lord’s vengeance; He will pay her what she deserves.

⁴⁵Come out of her, My people! Save your lives, each of you, from the fierce anger of the Lord.

⁸Flee from the midst of Babylon; depart from the land of the Chaldeans; be like the he-goats that lead the flock.

²⁰Leave Babylon! Flee from the Chaldeans! Declare it with a shout of joy, proclaim it, let it go out to the ends of the earth, saying, “The Lord has redeemed His servant Jacob!”

²⁰Then the Lord said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great. Because their sin is so grievous,

²¹I will go down to see if their actions fully justify the outcry that has reached Me. If not, I will find out.”

⁶and said: “O my God, I am ashamed and embarrassed to lift up my face to You, my God, because our iniquities are higher than our heads, and our guilt has reached the heavens.

¹⁹The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed. And God remembered Babylon the great and gave her the cup of the wine of the fury of His wrath.

⁹“We tried to heal Babylon, but she could not be healed. Abandon her! Let each of us go to his own land, for her judgment extends to the sky and reaches to the clouds.”

²“Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before Me.”

⁹But a prophet of the Lord named Oded was there, and he went out to meet the army that returned to Samaria. “Look,” he said to them, “because of His wrath against Judah, the Lord, the God of your fathers, has delivered them into your hand. But you have slaughtered them in a rage that reaches up to heaven.

²⁹Summon the archers against Babylon, all who string the bow. Encamp all around her; let no one escape. Repay her according to her deeds; do to her as she has done. For she has defied the Lord, the Holy One of Israel.

⁸O Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, blessed is he who repays you as you have done to us.

²⁴Before your very eyes I will repay Babylon and all the dwellers of Chaldea for all the evil they have done in Zion,” declares the Lord.

¹⁵Raise a war cry against her on every side! She has thrown up her hands in surrender; her towers have fallen; her walls are torn down. Since this is the vengeance of the Lord, take out your vengeance upon her; as she has done, do the same to her.

¹⁰he too will drink the wine of God’s anger, poured undiluted into the cup of His wrath. And he will be tormented in fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb.

¹⁹The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed. And God remembered Babylon the great and gave her the cup of the wine of the fury of His wrath.

⁷You said, ‘I will be queen forever.’ You did not take these things to heart or consider their outcome.

⁸So now hear this, O lover of luxury who sits securely, who says to herself, ‘I am, and there is none besides me. I will never be a widow or know the loss of children.’

¹⁵This carefree city that dwells securely, that thinks to herself: “I am it, and there is none besides me,” what a ruin she has become, a resting place for beasts. Everyone who passes by her hisses and shakes his fist.

¹How lonely lies the city, once so full of people! She who was great among the nations has become a widow. The princess of the provinces has become a slave.

²“Son of man, tell the ruler of Tyre that this is what the Lord God says: Your heart is proud, and you have said, ‘I am a god; I sit in the seat of gods in the heart of the sea.’ Yet you are a man and not a god, though you have regarded your heart as that of a god.

³Behold, you are wiser than Daniel; no secret is hidden from you!

⁴He will oppose and exalt himself above every so-called god or object of worship. So he will seat himself in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.

⁵Do you not remember that I told you these things while I was still with you?

¹⁸Say to the king and to the queen mother: “Take a lowly seat, for your glorious crowns have fallen from your heads.”

³⁴Their Redeemer is strong; the Lord of Hosts is His name. He will fervently plead their case so that He may bring rest to the earth, but turmoil to those who live in Babylon.

³¹“Behold, I am against you, O arrogant one,” declares the Lord God of Hosts, “for your day has come, the time when I will punish you.

¹⁶And the ten horns and the beast that you saw will hate the prostitute. They will leave her desolate and naked, and they will eat her flesh and burn her with fire.

⁹Then the kings of the earth who committed sexual immorality and lived in luxury with her will weep and wail at the sight of the smoke rising from the fire that consumes her.

¹⁰In fear of her torment, they will stand at a distance and cry out: “Woe, woe to the great city, the mighty city of Babylon! For in a single hour your judgment has come.”

²²Are we trying to provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He?

¹⁹Then they will throw dust on their heads as they weep and mourn and cry out: “Woe, woe to the great city, where all who had ships on the sea were enriched by her wealth! For in a single hour she has been destroyed.”

³All the nations have drunk the wine of the passion of her immorality. The kings of the earth were immoral with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown wealthy from the extravagance of her luxury.”

³And a second time they called out: “Hallelujah! Her smoke rises forever and ever.”

¹⁸and cry out at the sight of the smoke rising from the fire that consumes her. “What city was ever like this great city?” they will exclaim.

²The kings of the earth were immoral with her, and those who dwell on the earth were intoxicated with the wine of her immorality.”

¹⁶All the princes of the sea will descend from their thrones, remove their robes, and strip off their embroidered garments. Clothed with terror, they will sit on the ground, trembling every moment, appalled over you.

¹⁷Then they will lament for you, saying, “How you have perished, O city of renown inhabited by seafaring men—she who was powerful on the sea, along with her people, who imposed terror on all peoples!

²⁰Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you saints and apostles and prophets, because God has pronounced for you His judgment against her.

¹⁹Then they will throw dust on their heads as they weep and mourn and cry out: “Woe, woe to the great city, where all who had ships on the sea were enriched by her wealth! For in a single hour she has been destroyed.”

⁸Therefore her plagues will come in one day—death and grief and famine—and she will be consumed by fire, for mighty is the Lord God who judges her.”

¹⁵The merchants who sold these things and gained their wealth from her will stand at a distance, in fear of her torment. They will weep and mourn,

¹⁶saying: “Woe, woe to the great city, clothed in fine linen and purple and scarlet, adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls!

⁸Then a second angel followed, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, who has made all the nations drink the wine of the passion of her immorality.”

¹⁶Therefore this is what the Lord, the God of Hosts, the Lord, says: “There will be wailing in all the public squares and cries of ‘Alas! Alas!’ in all the streets. The farmer will be summoned to mourn, and the mourners to wail.

¹⁵Alas for the day! For the Day of the Lord is near, and it will come as destruction from the Almighty.

³All the nations have drunk the wine of the passion of her immorality. The kings of the earth were immoral with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown wealthy from the extravagance of her luxury.”

²³The light of a lamp will never shine in you again, and the voices of a bride and bridegroom will never call out in you again. For your merchants were the great ones of the earth, because all the nations were deceived by your sorcery.”

²⁷Your wealth, wares, and merchandise, your sailors, captains, and shipwrights, your merchants and all the warriors within you, with all the other people on board, will sink into the heart of the sea on the day of your downfall.

²⁸The countryside will shake when your sailors cry out.

¹⁷Then they will lament for you, saying, “How you have perished, O city of renown inhabited by seafaring men—she who was powerful on the sea, along with her people, who imposed terror on all peoples!

¹⁸Now the coastlands tremble on the day of your downfall; the islands in the sea are dismayed by your demise.”’

¹⁶And the second beast required all people, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their forehead,

¹⁷so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark—the name of the beast or the number of its name.

¹⁵The merchants who sold these things and gained their wealth from her will stand at a distance, in fear of her torment. They will weep and mourn,

⁴The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls. She held in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality.

¹¹(The fleet of Hiram that brought gold from Ophir also brought from Ophir a great cargo of almug wood and precious stones.

¹²The king made the almug wood into steps for the house of the Lord and for the king’s palace, and into lyres and harps for the singers. Never before had such almug wood been brought in, nor has such been seen again to this day.)

⁵They constructed all your planking with cypress from Senir. They took a cedar from Lebanon to make a mast for you.

⁶Of oaks from Bashan they made your oars; of wood from the coasts of Cyprus they made your deck, inlaid with ivory.

¹⁰Receive my instruction instead of silver, and knowledge rather than pure gold.

¹¹For wisdom is more precious than rubies, and nothing you desire compares with her.

⁸Send me also cedar, cypress, and algum logs from Lebanon, for I know that your servants have skill to cut timber there. And indeed, my servants will work with yours

¹³Javan, Tubal, and Meshech were your merchants. They exchanged slaves and bronze utensils for your merchandise.

⁶This is what the Lord says: “For three transgressions of Israel, even four, I will not revoke My judgment, because they sell the righteous for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals.

⁸and said, “We have done our best to buy back our Jewish brothers who were sold to foreigners, but now you are selling your own brothers, that they may be sold back to us!” But they remained silent, for they could find nothing to say.

³In their greed, these false teachers will exploit you with deceptive words. The longstanding verdict against them remains in force, and their destruction does not sleep.

¹This is what the Lord says: “Where is your mother’s certificate of divorce with which I sent her away? Or to which of My creditors did I sell you? Look, you were sold for your iniquities, and for your transgressions your mother was sent away.

⁷If a man is caught kidnapping one of his Israelite brothers, whether he treats him as a slave or sells him, the kidnapper must die. So you must purge the evil from among you.

⁶These things took place as examples to keep us from craving evil things as they did.

²You crave what you do not have; you kill and covet, but are unable to obtain it. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask.

²⁰But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be required of you. Then who will own what you have accumulated?’

¹⁴They craved intensely in the wilderness and tested God in the desert.

¹⁶For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not from the Father but from the world.

¹⁷The world is passing away, along with its desires; but whoever does the will of God remains forever.

⁴Meanwhile, the rabble among them had a strong craving for other food, and again the Israelites wept and said, “Who will feed us meat?

³All the nations have drunk the wine of the passion of her immorality. The kings of the earth were immoral with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown wealthy from the extravagance of her luxury.”

²⁴It began with a silversmith named Demetrius who made silver shrines of Artemis, bringing much business to the craftsmen.

²⁵Demetrius assembled the craftsmen, along with the workmen in related trades. “Men,” he said, “you know that this business is our source of prosperity.

³¹They will shave their heads for you and wrap themselves in sackcloth. They will weep over you with anguish of soul and bitter mourning.

¹⁰In fear of her torment, they will stand at a distance and cry out: “Woe, woe to the great city, the mighty city of Babylon! For in a single hour your judgment has come.”

¹¹And the merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her, because there is no one left to buy their cargo—

⁵whose buyers slaughter them without remorse. Those who sell them say, ‘Blessed be the Lord, for I am rich!’ Even their own shepherds have no compassion on them.

¹⁶Therefore this is what the Lord, the God of Hosts, the Lord, says: “There will be wailing in all the public squares and cries of ‘Alas! Alas!’ in all the streets. The farmer will be summoned to mourn, and the mourners to wail.

¹⁷There will be wailing in all the vineyards, for I will pass through your midst,” says the Lord.

⁴The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls. She held in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality.

¹⁰In fear of her torment, they will stand at a distance and cry out: “Woe, woe to the great city, the mighty city of Babylon! For in a single hour your judgment has come.”

¹¹And the merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her, because there is no one left to buy their cargo—

¹⁹Now there was a rich man dressed in purple and fine linen, who lived each day in joyous splendor.

²⁰And a beggar named Lazarus lay at his gate, covered with sores

¹⁹Then they will throw dust on their heads as they weep and mourn and cry out: “Woe, woe to the great city, where all who had ships on the sea were enriched by her wealth! For in a single hour she has been destroyed.”

²⁷Your wealth, wares, and merchandise, your sailors, captains, and shipwrights, your merchants and all the warriors within you, with all the other people on board, will sink into the heart of the sea on the day of your downfall.

²⁸The countryside will shake when your sailors cry out.

¹⁶And the ten horns and the beast that you saw will hate the prostitute. They will leave her desolate and naked, and they will eat her flesh and burn her with fire.

¹⁴Wail, O ships of Tarshish, for your harbor has been destroyed!

⁸Suddenly Babylon has fallen and been shattered. Wail for her; get her balm for her pain; perhaps she can be healed.

⁶The captain approached him and said, “How can you sleep? Get up and call upon your God. Perhaps this God will consider us, so that we may not perish.”

¹⁹Then they will throw dust on their heads as they weep and mourn and cry out: “Woe, woe to the great city, where all who had ships on the sea were enriched by her wealth! For in a single hour she has been destroyed.”

⁴They worshiped the dragon who had given authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who can wage war against it?”

⁹Then the kings of the earth who committed sexual immorality and lived in luxury with her will weep and wail at the sight of the smoke rising from the fire that consumes her.

¹⁰In fear of her torment, they will stand at a distance and cry out: “Woe, woe to the great city, the mighty city of Babylon! For in a single hour your judgment has come.”

³⁷Babylon will become a heap of rubble, a haunt for jackals, an object of horror and scorn, without inhabitant.

³⁰They will raise their voices for you and cry out bitterly. They will throw dust on their heads and roll in ashes.

³¹They will shave their heads for you and wrap themselves in sackcloth. They will weep over you with anguish of soul and bitter mourning.

⁸Who planned this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns, whose traders are princes, whose merchants are renowned on the earth?

⁹The Lord of Hosts planned it, to defile all its glorious beauty, to disgrace all the renowned of the earth.

¹⁰In fear of her torment, they will stand at a distance and cry out: “Woe, woe to the great city, the mighty city of Babylon! For in a single hour your judgment has come.”

⁶Then Joshua tore his clothes and fell facedown before the ark of the Lord until evening, as did the elders of Israel; and they all sprinkled dust on their heads.

³⁰They will raise their voices for you and cry out bitterly. They will throw dust on their heads and roll in ashes.

³All the nations have drunk the wine of the passion of her immorality. The kings of the earth were immoral with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown wealthy from the extravagance of her luxury.”

¹²When they lifted up their eyes from afar, they could barely recognize Job. They began to weep aloud, and each man tore his robe and threw dust in the air over his head.

⁸Therefore her plagues will come in one day—death and grief and famine—and she will be consumed by fire, for mighty is the Lord God who judges her.”

¹⁰And they cried out in a loud voice, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge those who dwell upon the earth and avenge our blood?”

¹²Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea; with great fury the devil has come down to you, knowing he has only a short time.”

¹After this I heard a sound like the roar of a great multitude in heaven, shouting: “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God!

²For His judgments are true and just. He has judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality. He has avenged the blood of His servants that was poured out by her hand.”

⁷Will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry out to Him day and night? Will He delay in helping them?

⁸I tell you, He will promptly carry out justice on their behalf. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?”

²¹For behold, the Lord is coming out of His dwelling to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. The earth will reveal her bloodshed and will no longer conceal her slain.

²by recalling what was foretold by the holy prophets and commanded by our Lord and Savior through your apostles.

⁶³When you finish reading this scroll, tie a stone to it and cast it into the Euphrates.

⁶⁴Then you are to say, ‘In the same way Babylon will sink and never rise again, because of the disaster I will bring upon her. And her people will grow weary.’” Here end the words of Jeremiah.

²¹I will make you an object of horror, and you will be no more. You will be sought, but will never be found,’ declares the Lord God.”

²And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming in a loud voice, “Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll?”

⁸But the dragon was not strong enough, and no longer was any place found in heaven for him and his angels.

⁸He will fly away like a dream, never to be found; he will be chased away like a vision in the night.

¹⁹After this, he will turn back toward the fortresses of his own land, but he will stumble and fall and be no more.

¹³So I will silence the sound of your songs, and the music of your lyres will no longer be heard.

¹⁰Moreover, I will banish from them the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of the bride and bridegroom, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the lamp.

⁹For this is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: I am going to remove from this place, before your very eyes and in your days, the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of the bride and bridegroom.

³⁴I will remove from the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem the sounds of joy and gladness and the voices of the bride and bridegroom, for the land will become a wasteland.”

⁸The joyful tambourines have ceased; the noise of revelers has stopped; the joyful harp is silent.

⁹They no longer sing and drink wine; strong drink is bitter to those who consume it.

⁴when the doors to the street are shut and the sound of the mill fades away, when one rises at the sound of a bird and all the daughters of song grow faint,

³All the nations have drunk the wine of the passion of her immorality. The kings of the earth were immoral with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown wealthy from the extravagance of her luxury.”

⁴because of the many harlotries of the harlot, the seductive mistress of sorcery, who betrays nations by her prostitution and clans by her witchcraft.

⁸Who planned this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns, whose traders are princes, whose merchants are renowned on the earth?

³⁴I will remove from the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem the sounds of joy and gladness and the voices of the bride and bridegroom, for the land will become a wasteland.”

¹⁵But outside are the dogs, the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.

³³When your wares went out to sea, you satisfied many nations. You enriched the kings of the earth with your abundant wealth and merchandise.

³⁴Now you are shattered by the seas in the depths of the waters; your merchandise and the people among you have gone down with you.

⁶I could see that the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints and witnesses for Jesus. And I was utterly amazed at the sight of her.

⁶For they have spilled the blood of saints and prophets, and You have given them blood to drink, as they deserve.”

⁴⁹“Babylon must fall on account of the slain of Israel, just as the slain of all the earth have fallen because of Babylon.

⁵²Which of the prophets did your fathers fail to persecute? They even killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One. And now you are His betrayers and murderers—

²For His judgments are true and just. He has judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality. He has avenged the blood of His servants that was poured out by her hand.”

²⁷Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and every kind of impurity.