Revelation 18:20 - Exposition

Rejoice over her, thou heaven. These words are best understood as being uttered by the writer, as in Revelation 12:12 (see on Revelation 12:10 ). And ye holy apostles and prophets; and ye saints, and ye apostles, and ye prophets, is read in א , A, B, P, etc., and adopted by the Revisers. The Authorized Version reading is found in C, 1, 17. Not only the heavenly inhabitants are to rejoice, but also those on earth who have been persecuted by her, as mentioned in verse 24. The time is again described which has been already referred to in former parts of the book, and especially in Revelation 11:18 . Some authors have held this verse to prove that the writer of the Apocalypse was not the Apostle John; either because

There is no ground for either presumption:

By the "prophets "are primarily intended, perhaps, the Christian prophets (cf. Ephesians 3:5 ); but if Babylon is typical of the hostile world power, and the harlot of the faithless, worldly portion of God's Church, as we have seen them to be, the words are applicable to the Church of God in all ages. For God hath avenged you on her; for God hath judged your judgment on her. The answer to the prayer of the martyrs in Revelation 6:10 . The words, "your judgment," probably mean "that judgment which is her due for her treatment of you," as in the Authorized Version. Hengstenberg gives "the doom which she pronounced upon you." Wordsworth, laying stress upon ἐξ , "out of," makes the words mean, "He has taken your cause out of her hands into his own."