Revelation 16:19 - Exposition

And the great city. The words which follow, as well as Revelation 11:8 ; Revelation 14:8 ; Revelation 17:18 ; Revelation 18:10 , Revelation 18:16 , etc., leave scarcely any doubt that the "great city" here is Babylon. These are the only passages in the Apocalypse where this title is found; for in Revelation 21:10 , "great" is not the true reading. Was divided into three parts. The signification of this clause is somewhat uncertain. The idea is probably that of total destruction, as in Ezekiel 5:2 , where a similar description is applied to Jerusalem. Possibly there is a reference to the trinity of evil mentioned in Ezekiel 5:13 . And the cities of the nations fell. The nations signifies the ungodly, who stand in the same relation to the godly as the Gentiles to God's chosen people (cf. Revelation 11:18 , etc.). This sentence declares the fall of every lesser form of evil, together with the greater typical form symbolized by" the great city." And great Babylon came in remembrance before God; and Babylon the great was remembered in the sight of God (Revised Ver-tion). Cf. the title of "great city" ( vide supra ) . Cf. also the similar expression in Acts 10:31 . This clause, together with the following one, taken in conjunction with the preceding and succeeding verses, must be referred to the great judgment day. To give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. This is the beginning of the fulfilment of the doom predicted by the angel in Revelation 14:10 . The judgment is more elaborately described in Revelation 18:1-24 .