Revelation 18:20-24

The Rejoicing in Heaven over the Fall of Rome.

Revelation 18:20. judged your judgement: vindicated the cause of the Christian Church against Rome.

Revelation 18:21. took up a stone: a symbolical action to represent the utter destruction of the city (cf. Jeremiah 51:63 f.). As this stone is flung into the deep, so shall Babylon vanish (Swete).

Revelation 18:22. The sound of merriment and revelry is stilled: no sounds will in the future come from its industrial life, or domestic labour. The stillness of death will be over everything. For the imagery cf. Ezekiel 26:13; Jeremiah 25:10.

Revelation 18:24. all that have been slain: the language of this passage is hyperbolical. Rome could not be held responsible for all the martyrdoms that had occurred in the history of Israel. The seer, however, is referring principally to the martyrdoms of his own day, and as Rome was mistress of the world and responsible for its good government, the loss of the lives sacrificed throughout the Empire lay at her door (cf. Matthew 23:35).