Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

Revelation 18:7

Revelation 18:7. In this verse the lex talionis is still administered both in extent and in severity. The humiliation of Babylon shall be the counterpart of her glorying. For she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am not a widow, and shall in no wise see mourning. The spirit of her glorying is expressed in three clauses, of which the second is peculiarly worthy of our notice. Commentators who see in Babylon the world-city are compelled to think of the beast and of the kings associated with it as the husband by the loss of whom Babylon had been reduced to widowhood. Such an interpretation is impossible. That husband had not been lost; the kings were not dead, they had only turned against her; while the words imply that she really is a widow although she does not feel it. If so, her boast can only be that she does not need the Lord for her husband. She has found another husband and many lovers. That she says these things ‘in her heart' can hardly be intended to exclude the idea of loud boastings. The words rather lead us to think of the deep-seated nature of that spirit of glorying by which she is possessed (comp. Isaiah 47:7-8).

Continues after advertising

BibliaPlus

Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

Revelation 18:7

Old Testament

New Testament