“For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.”
King James Version (KJV)
18:1 And I saw another angel coming down out of heaven - Termed another, with respect to him who came down out of heaven, #Rev 10:1|. And the earth was enlightened with his glory - To make his coming more conspicuous. If such be the lustre of the servant, what images can display the majesty of the Lord, who has thousand thousands of those glorious attendants ministering to him, and ten thousand times ten thousand standing before him?
18:2 And he cried, Babylon is fallen - This fall was mentioned before, #Rev 14:8|; but is now declared at large. And is become an habitation - A free abode. Of devils, and an hold - A prison. Of every unclean spirit - Perhaps confined there where they had once practised all uncleanness, till the judgment of the great day. How many horrid inhabitants hath desolate Babylon! of invisible beings, devils, and unclean spirits; of visible, every unclean beast, every filthy and hateful bird. Suppose, then, Babylon to mean heathen Rome; what have the Romanists gained, seeing from the time of that destruction, which they say is past, these are to be its only inhabitants for ever.
18:4 And I heard another voice - Of Christ, whose people, secretly scattered even there, are warned of her approaching destruction. That ye be not partakers of her sins - That is, of the fruits of them. What a remarkable providence it was that the Revelation was printed in the midst of Spain, in the great Polyglot Bible, before the Reformation! Else how much easier had it been for the Papists to reject the whole book, than it is to evade these striking parts of it.
18:5 Even to heaven - An expression which implies the highest guilt.
Re 18:3 For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath. Partaken with her in her sins. Of her fornication. See PNT "Re 17:5". Merchants of the earth are waxed rich. Her luxurious living had made great markets.