Bible Strands
Revelation 18:3
All the nations have drunk the wine of the passion of her immorality. The kings of the earth were immoral with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown wealthy from the extravagance of her luxury.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — An angelic voice declares the collapse of Babylon to John's vision, positioned between a proclamation of her demonic corruption and a heavenly command for God's people to flee.
The words — The Greek οἴνου τοῦ θυμοῦ (oinou tou thumou) literally translates "wine of wrath," while πορνείας (porneias) denotes sexual immorality, describing the source of the nations' intoxication.
The thread — This passage directly parallels Revelation 14:8 and Revelation 17:2, which record the nations drinking the wine of her immorality, and points forward to Revelation 18:9, where her political and commercial allies mourn her ruin.
Why it lands — The text reports that global systems of greed and idolatry produce widespread corruption and inevitable judgment; it requires readers to identify with the commanded separation rather than the complicit luxury.
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
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.
Cross-references
- 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.”
- Revelation 17:2 The kings of the earth were immoral with her, and those who dwell on the earth were intoxicated with the wine of her immorality.”
- Revelation 18:9 Then the kings of the earth who committed sexual immorality and lived in luxury with her will weep and wail at the sight of the smoke rising from the fire that consumes her.
- Jeremiah 51:7 Babylon was a gold cup in the hand of the LORD, making the whole earth drunk. The nations drank her wine; therefore the nations have gone mad.
- Revelation 18:23 The light of a lamp will never shine in you again, and the voices of a bride and bridegroom will never call out in you again. For your merchants were the great ones of the earth, because all the nations were deceived by your sorcery.”
- Lamentations 4:5 Those who once ate delicacies are destitute in the streets; those brought up in crimson huddle in ash heaps.
- 2 Peter 2:1 Now there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves.
- Revelation 18:11 And the merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her, because there is no one left to buy their cargo—
- Isaiah 47:15 This is what they are to you—those with whom you have labored and traded from youth—each one strays in his own direction; not one of them can save you.
- Jeremiah 51:34 “Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has devoured me; he has crushed me. He has set me aside like an empty vessel; he has swallowed me like a monster; he filled his belly with my delicacies and vomited me out.