Revelation 18:20–21: Edit history

Context

Chapters 17–18 of Revelation describe the fall of "Babylon the great." Chapter 18 unfolds as follows:

• Verses 1–3: An angel proclaims that Babylon is fallen.
• Verses 4–8: A voice from heaven calls God's people to come out of the city.
• Verses 9–19: The kings, merchants, and seafarers of the earth lament, crying "Alas, alas."

Verse 20 contrasts with this lament by calling on heaven and the saints to rejoice. Commentators differ on whether the speaker is the heavenly voice of verse 4, John himself, or the seafarers continuing their lament.

The declaration that God has avenged the saints refers to righting a wrong and redressing an injustice. It corresponds to Revelation 6:10, where the martyrs cry out, "How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?"

In verse 21, a mighty angel concludes the judgment with a symbolic act, casting a millstone into the sea. Verses 22–23 then repeat the refrain "no more at all" to portray the city's complete disappearance. Interpreters broadly agree that the casting of the millstone recalls the scene in Jeremiah 51, where Seraiah binds a stone to a book and casts it into the Euphrates.

Interpretations

• Preterist reading: This view reads the passage in light of the situation of its first-century readers. It identifies Babylon with the Roman Empire that persecuted the saints (some identify it with Jerusalem) and reads the passage as a prediction of the collapse of that power and its economy.
• Historicist reading: This view correlates biblical prophecy with successive events in church history. Many Protestant interpreters during and after the Reformation took this approach and identified Babylon with the papal Roman Church. Today only a minority holds this interpretation.
• Futurist reading: Dispensationalist interpreters, among others, regard Babylon as a worldwide religious and economic system, or as an actual city, that will appear just before the end.
• Symbolic reading: This view takes Babylon as a symbol of the proud systems of power and wealth that oppose God in every age.

Debates and Issues

• The ethics of rejoicing over destruction: Some ask whether this call conflicts with the teaching to love one's enemies. Many interpreters understand the joy not as personal vindictiveness but as joy that God's justice is revealed and wrongs are set right. They read the passage alongside Romans 12:17–21, which instructs believers to leave vengeance to God. The imprecation against Babylon in the verses following Psalm 137:1–6 is discussed in connection with the same question.
• The problem of direct application: Voices from various traditions caution that identifying Babylon directly with a particular nation, denomination, or group in order to justify hostility takes the text out of context.
• Manuscript differences: The King James Version renders verse 20 as "holy apostles and prophets." This is generally attributed to differences in the manuscript tradition underlying that translation. The Korean Revised Version (Gaeyeok) reads "saints and apostles and prophets."

Related Passages

• Revelation 6:9–11
• Jeremiah 51:63–64
• Revelation 19:1–2
• Romans 12:19
• Mark 9:42