Bible Strands
Revelation 18:2
And he cried out in a mighty voice: “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a lair for demons and a haunt for every unclean spirit, every unclean bird, and every detestable beast.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — An angel descending from heaven with great authority proclaims Babylon’s judgment to all witnesses. The announcement occurs immediately after the earth is illuminated by his glory and precedes the description of global complicity in her corruption.
The words — The Greek ἔπεσεν (epesen) literally means "fallen," repeated for emphatic finality. ἔκραξεν (ekraxen) denotes a loud, public cry delivered in a mighty voice.
The thread — This proclamation echoes Jeremiah 51:8 and Jeremiah 51:37, which predict Babylon’s sudden collapse and transformation into a desolate haunt for unclean creatures. It also repeats the exact formula found in Revelation 14:8.
Why it lands — The text states that a corrupt, wealthy system will be decisively dismantled and rendered uninhabitable. It requires readers to recognize the certainty of that judgment and withdraw from complicit alliances.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 51:8 Suddenly Babylon has fallen and been shattered. Wail for her; get her balm for her pain; perhaps she can be healed.
- Revelation 14:8 Then a second angel followed, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, who has made all the nations drink the wine of the passion of her immorality.”
- Jeremiah 51:37 Babylon will become a heap of rubble, a haunt for jackals, an object of horror and scorn, without inhabitant.
- Jeremiah 50:39 So the desert creatures and hyenas will live there and ostriches will dwell there. It will never again be inhabited or lived in from generation to generation.
- Jeremiah 51:60 Jeremiah had written on a single scroll about all the disaster that would come upon Babylon—all these words that had been written concerning Babylon.
- Isaiah 13:19 And Babylon, the jewel of the kingdoms, the glory of the pride of the Chaldeans, will be overthrown by God like Sodom and Gomorrah.
- Isaiah 21:8 Then the lookout shouted: “Day after day, my lord, I stand on the watchtower; night after night I stay at my post.
- Revelation 16:19 The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed. And God remembered Babylon the great and gave her the cup of the wine of the fury of His wrath.
- Revelation 18:21 Then a mighty angel picked up a stone the size of a great millstone and cast it into the sea, saying: “With such violence the great city of Babylon will be cast down, never to be seen again.
- Revelation 17:5 And on her forehead a mysterious name was written: BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF PROSTITUTES AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.