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56 lines
8.1 KiB
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<title>Blue Letter Bible - Text Commentaries</title>
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<h2><a onclick="return mV('Rev',18,'1-')">Revelation 18</a></h2>
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<h5>The Destruction of Babylon</h5>
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<p>Ecclesiastical Harlot vs. Commercial City?<br>City of Babylon (“Great Babylon”) vs. Mystery Babylon, the harlot woman, mother of whores...both under rule of the antichrist, filled with blasphemy, etc.</p>
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<p>Sea port, destroyed <i>by God</i> (<a onclick="return mV('Rev',18,'8-10',19,21)">Rev 18:8-10, 19, 21</a>) vs. City of seven hills, destroyed <i>by political beast</i> (<a onclick="return mV('Rev',17,16)">Rev 17:16</a>).</p>
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<p class="hangIndent">[1] “And after these things...”: <i>Meta tauta</i>: after what things?</p>
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<p class="hangIndent">[2] “And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen...”:</p>
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<p>“...is fallen, is fallen”: <a onclick="return mV('Isa',21,9)">Isa 21:9</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Rev',14,8)">Rev 14:8</a>.</p>
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<p><b><i>Sevenfold call</i> </b>: <a onclick="return mV('Isa',48,20)">Isa 48:20</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Isa',52,11)">Isa 52:11</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Jer',50,8,9)">Jer 50:8-9</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Jer',51,6,8)">Jer 51:6, 8</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Zec',2,6,7)">Zech 2:6-7</a>; <a onclick="return mV('2Co',6,17,18)">2Cr 6:17-18</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Rev',18,4)">Rev 18:4</a>.</p>
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<p>Repository of demons and unclean birds? Birds are associated with Satan in <a onclick="return mV('Mat',12,31,32)">Mat 12:31-32</a>. [Incarcerated during the Millennium?] Alien conjectures; Cf. <a onclick="return mV('Isa',13,'19-22')">Isa 13:19-22</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Jer',50,'38-40')">Jer 50:38-40</a>.</p>
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<p class="hangIndent">[4] “And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues”: Remember, 144,000 all made it; none were lost. Remember also, the shepherd didn’t end up with just 99... Cf. <a onclick="return mV('Deu',4,30,31)">Deu 4:30-31</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Jer',51,5,6,45)">Jer 51:5-6, 45</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Isa',48,20)">Isa 48:20</a>.</p>
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<p>Separation commanded (<a onclick="return mV('Rom',16,17,18)">Rom 16:17-18</a>; <a onclick="return mV('2Co',6,'14-18')">2Cr 6:14-18</a>; <a onclick="return mV('2Co',7,1)">2Cr 7:1</a>).</p>
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<p class="hangIndent">[6] “Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double”: <a onclick="return mV('Psa',137,'1-')">Psa 137</a>.</p>
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<p class="hangIndent">[7] “Am no widow”? Cf. Israel, the widow of YHWH. Widow, non-virgin, unacceptable bride of priest (<a onclick="return mV('Lev',22,13)">Lev 22:13</a>). Jerusalem referred to as a “widow” (<a onclick="return mV('Lam',1,1)">Lam 1:1</a>; Cf. <a onclick="return mV('Isa',47,'1-')">Isa 47</a>).</p>
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<p class="hangIndent">[8] “Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong [is] the Lord God who judgeth her”: <a onclick="return mV('Isa',47,'1-')">Isa 47</a>.</p>
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<p class="hangIndent">[9] “And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning...”: Note three groups of people singled out: kings, merchants, and those who trade by sea...</p>
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<p class="hangIndent">[12] “The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble...”</p>
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<p class="hangIndent">[13] “And cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men.”</p>
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<p>28 (4 x 7) cargoes: literal, not symbolic.</p>
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<p>“slaves”: In Rome, 1/3 population were slaves; 10,000 traded per day in the Empire; over 50 million estimated. Do we have slaves today? What about economic slavery? 60% in taxes; economic bondage to corporations, luxury, etc., unable to break loose from the “system.”</p>
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<p class="hangIndent">[14] “And the fruits that thy soul lusted after are departed from thee, and all things which were dainty and goodly are departed from thee, and thou shalt find them no more at all”: <a onclick="return mV('Eze',26,'1-')">Eze 26</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Eze',27,'1-')">Eze 27</a>.</p>
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<p class="hangIndent">[20] “Rejoice over her, [thou] heaven, and [ye] holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her”: First time in this book the command to rejoice is given! <a onclick="return mV('Jer',51,56,'59-64')">Jer 51:56, 59-64</a>. [What do <i>you</i> rejoice over? What is your heart fixed on today?]</p>
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<p class="hangIndent">[22] “And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft [he be], shall be found any more in thee; and the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee”: Factories close. Lights are off. It’s over.</p>
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<p class="hangIndent">[24] “And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth”: Cf. <a onclick="return mV('Rev',17,6)">Rev 17:6</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Mat',23,35)">Mat 23:35</a>.</p>
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<h5><a onclick="return mV('Zec',5,'5-15')">Zechariah 5:5-15</a> Babylon Re-emerges?</h5>
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<p>The strange vision in <a onclick="return mV('Zec',5,'1-')">Zechariah 5</a> suggests that there will be an appropriate time when the commercial and religious power center of the Planet Earth will, once again, migrate <i>back to its original site</i> of the literal city of Babylon.</p>
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<p>Note that the <i>“ephah”</i> and the <i>“talent”</i> were the standard commercial measures of volume and weight, respectively. The two carriers had the <i>“wings of a stork”</i> which is an unclean bird. The captive woman called <i>“wickedness”</i> may be a reference to the harlot of <a onclick="return mV('Rev',17,'1-')">Revelation 17</a> and <a onclick="return mV('Rev',18,'1-')">Revelation 18</a>.</p>
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<p>The broadly overlooked possibility is that there will yet be a global power shift from Rome to Babylon—to where it all began and where it will finally be judged.</p>
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<p>Edward Gibbon, <i>The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,</i> 1788: Gibbon offers five reasons why that great civilization withered and died:</p>
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<ol>
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<li>The undermining of the dignity and sanctity of the home as the basis for human society.</li>
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<li>Higher and higher taxes; the spending of public money for free bread and circuses for the populace.</li>
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<li>The mad craze for pleasure; sports becoming every year more exciting, more brutal, more immoral.</li>
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<li>The building of great armaments when the real enemy was within: the decay of individual responsibility.</li>
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<li>The decay of religion; faith fading into mere form, losing touch with life, losing power to guide the people.</li>
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</ol>
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<p>Symbols encourage believers in any period of church history. In every age there has been a “harlot” who has persecuted God’s people; the end will culminate in a worldwide apostate religious system.</p>
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