Revelation 18:21

Then a mighty angel picked up a boulder the size of a large stone for grinding grain, and threw it into the ocean. Then he said, “O you people in [APO] the awesome/great cities represented by Babylon, your cities will be destroyed so that they will disappear just like that stone disappeared in the ocean! Your cities will be gone forever [LIT]!

Translation for Translators

In The King James Version

And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all.

In Context

20Then someone spoke from heaven saying, “All you who live in heaven, rejoice over what has happened to the cities represented by Babylon! You who are God’s people, including you apostles, you ◄prophets/who speak messages that come directly from God►, rejoice, because God has justly punished the people of those cities because they acted in an evil way toward you!”

22In your cities there will never again be anyone playing harps, singing, playing flutes, and blowing trumpets. There will no longer be any ◄skilled workers/craftsmen► making things. There will never again be people grinding grain at [MTY] the mills.

Read all of Revelation 18

Cross References

Nehemiah 9:11You caused the Red Sea to divide, with the result that your people walked through it on the ground without getting their feet wet. After they were all safely on the other side, you caused the water to come back again, and you hurled into the deep water the soldiers of the Egyptian army that were pursuing our ancestors. Their soldiers sank into the deep sea like stones!

Psalms 37:36when I looked later, they were gone! I searched for them, but Yahweh had caused them to disappear.

Ezekiel 26:21I will cause them to die in a horrible way (OR, people will be very afraid because of what happens to that city), and that will be the end of ◄them/their lives►. People will search for that city but it will no longer exist. That is what I, Yahweh the Lord, declare will happen.’”

Revelation 5:2I saw a strong angel who was announcing in a loud voice, “◄The person who is worthy to break the seals of the scroll and then to open it should come to do it!/Who is worthy to break the seals of the scroll and then to open it?►” [RHQ]

Revelation 12:8But the dragon did not win the battle, so God did not allow the dragon and his angels to stay in heaven any longer.

Revelation 18:10They will stand far away from those cities, because they will be afraid that they will suffer just like the people of those cities are suffering. They will say, ‘Terrible things will happen to the awesome and mighty cities represented by Babylon! God will punish them suddenly and swiftly [MTY]!’

Matthew Henry on Revelation 18:10-24

The Fall of Babylon. ( a. d. 95.) 9 And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning, 10 Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come. 11 And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more: 12 The merchandise of gold, and silver, and… Read the whole commentary →

This Verse In Other Editions

Study Revelation 18:21