Revelation 18:9-20 Alas, Babylon!

Revelation 18:9-19 The very detailed description of all that the city, Babylon, meant to all the earth's inhabitants, and the depth of their grief at her destruction, reveals that the entire earth had been corrupted. One might wonder how people of the rest of the world would respond if the United States were destroyed in a nuclear war.  For all the vilification that is laid out in the media, envy appears to lie behind the response. Babylon is described as a great and strong city that is rich through economic activity. There was a trickle-down effect in the purchase of cargo from merchants from the rest of the world. Evidently this included human trafficking.

          In this passage, the physical events seem to be more like what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah. The actual city involved doesn't seem likely to be historical Babylon revived, since it is landlocked, in modern day Iraq. What we would need to zero in on is a city that is the pre-eminent commercial port of the world, with the added clue that it is also the source of worldwide passion for illicit sexual intercourse. Does this sound like New York City or Los Angeles?

Revelation 18:20 This appears to be an angelic interjection to the reader. The faithful should celebrate the total destruction of Babylon. The city and the system it engenders are at war with believers; even if not hunting them down to exterminate them, as the beast is, it is attempting to destroy their faith through temptation to live in accordance with the world's ways.