Revelation 19:11-19

Revelation 19:11-17 a. These verses contain the lamentation of the merchants of the earth, as they mourn over the fate of a city which presented such a gorgeous picture of worldly riches and extravagance. The expression at the close of Revelation 19:13, souls of men, is difficult to understand. A glance at the original is sufficient to show that it cannot be construed with that immediately preceding it, ‘slaves,' or, as in the margin of the Revised Version, ‘bodies.' The contrast is not, therefore, between the body and the soul, so as to allow us to interpret the clause before us as if it meant a spiritual traffic, some means by which Babylon so ruined the higher nature of men that she might be said to traffic in their souls. The word translated ‘souls' takes us rather to the thought of persons, as in Ezekiel 27:13; and the probabilities are then in favour of the idea that they are slaves. If this be correct we shall be obliged to reject the rendering given both by the Authorised and Revised Versions to the preceding substantive ‘slaves,' and to translate it literally ‘bodies.' Associated with horses and chariots it will then represent some other means by which burdens were conveyed, and will lead us to the thought of hired persons.

Revelation 19:17-19. These verses contain the lamentation of the third group that bewails the fall of Babylon, consisting of sailors and of all who trade by sea. Attention has been already called to the fact that the imagery of this chapter is largely drawn from Ezekiel 26, 27, i.e from Chapter s describing the fall of Tyre. This, however, need occasion us no surprise, for in the Old Testament Tyre is viewed as if she were another Babylon (comp. Isaiah 24:10, ‘The city of confusion,' i.e Babylon, ‘is broken down'). Again, it may seem at first sight as if the varied riches of this city can belong to nothing but a city in the ordinary sense of the word, and that they cannot be associated with any spiritual power. Yet it may be for these very riches that the disciples of Christ sacrifice their Lord, and they may obtain them as the reward of their faithlessness. They may act a part the reverse of that for which Moses is commended in Hebrews 11, and may prefer the treasures of Egypt to the reproach of Christ. They may yield to the temptation which Christ resisted, when, as He was offered the kingdoms of the world and all their glory, He replied, ‘Get thee behind me, Satan.' He withstood, suffered, and died. His degenerate followers may yield, accept, and live. But the price! is worth considering.

Before passing from the lamentations before us, one interesting trait of the structural principles of the Apocalypse may he noticed. In Revelation 19:9 ‘the kings of the earth shall weep; ' in Revelation 19:11 ‘the merchants of the earth weep; ' in Revelation 19:17 ‘the pilots, etc., stood afar off and cried.' From the future we pass to the present, from the present to the tense which expresses the taking up of their position in the most positive and determined manner. The sequence is probably to be explained by the circumstance that the destruction of the city is beheld as constantly drawing nearer. But its main interest consists in the illustration which it affords of the careful minuteness with which in the Apocalypse words, phrases, and constructions are selected, and of the depth of meaning which the writer, by each change of expression, intends to convey.