Revelation 18

¹ After this, I saw another angel come down from heaven, with great authority given to him; the earth was lit up with his glory.[*a]

² At the top of his voice he shouted, ‘Babylon has fallen, Babylon the Great has fallen, and has become the haunt of devils[*b] and a lodging for every foul spirit and dirty, loathsome bird.

³ All the nations have been intoxicated by the wine of her prostitution; every king in the earth has committed fornication with her, and every merchant grown rich through her debauchery.’

⁴ A new voice spoke from heaven; I heard it say, ‘Come out, my people, away from her, so that you do not share in her crimes and have the same plagues to bear.

⁵ Her sins have reached up to heaven,[*c] and God has her crimes in mind:

⁶ she is to be paid in her own coin.[*d] She must be paid double the amount she exacted. She is to have a doubly strong cup of her own mixture.

⁷ Every one of her shows and orgies is to be matched by a torture or a grief. I am the queen on my throne, she says to herself,[*e] and I am no widow and shall never be in mourning.

⁸ For that, within a single day, the plagues will fall on her: disease and mourning and famine. She will be burnt right up. The Lord God has condemned her, and he has great power.’

⁹ There will be mourning and weeping for her by the kings of the earth who have fornicated with her and lived with her in luxury. They see the smoke as she burns,

¹⁰ while they keep at a safe distance from fear of her agony. They will say: ‘Mourn, mourn for this great city, Babylon, so powerful a city, doomed as you are within a single hour’.

¹¹ There will be weeping and distress over her among all the traders of the earth when there is nobody left to buy their cargoes of goods;

¹² their stocks of gold and silver, jewels and pearls, linen and purple and silks and scarlet; all the sandalwood, every piece in ivory or fine wood, in bronze or iron or marble;

¹³ the cinnamon and spices, the myrrh and ointment and incense; wine, oil, flour and corn; their stocks of cattle, sheep, horses and chariots, their slaves, their human cargo.

¹⁴ ‘All the fruits you had set your hearts on have failed you; gone for ever, never to return, is your life of magnificence and ease.’

¹⁵ The traders who had made a fortune out of her will be standing at a safe distance from fear of her agony, mourning and weeping.

¹⁶ They will be saying: ‘Mourn, mourn for this great city; for all the linen and purple and scarlet that you wore, for all your finery of gold and jewels and pearls;

¹⁷ your riches are all destroyed within a single hour’. All the captains and seafaring men, sailors and all those who make a living from the sea will be keeping a safe distance,

¹⁸ watching the smoke as she burns, and crying out, ‘Has there ever been a city as great as this!’

¹⁹ They will throw dust on their heads and say, with tears and groans: ‘Mourn, mourn for this great city whose lavish living has made a fortune for every owner of a sea-going ship; ruined within a single hour.’

²⁰ ‘Now heaven, celebrate her downfall, and all you saints, apostles and prophets: God has given judgement for you against her.’

²¹ Then a powerful angel picked up a boulder like a great millstone, and as he hurled it into the sea, he said, ‘That is how the great city of Babylon is going to be hurled down, never to be seen again.

²² Never again in you, Babylon, will be heard the song of harpists and minstrels, the music of flute and trumpet; never again will craftsmen of every skill be found or the sound of the mill[*f] be heard;

²³ never again will shine the light of the lamp, never again will be heard the voices of bridegroom and bride. Your traders were the princes of the earth, all the nations were under your spell.

²⁴ In her you will find the blood of prophets and saints, and all the blood that was ever shed on earth.’