Revelation 18:2 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

And he cried mightily with a strong voice Proclaimed aloud with triumphant joy, in the words of Isaiah 21:9, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen As if he had said, What was prophesied formerly concerning the celebrated seat of the Chaldean empire, shall presently be verified in this mystical Babylon. Her fall was announced before, chap. Revelation 14:8, but is now declared at large; and is become a habitation of devils, &c. Here it is foretold, that after her fall she should be made a scene of desolation, as the ancient Babylon was, according to the predictions of the prophet respecting ancient Babylon, Isaiah 13:19, Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah; it shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation. Neither shall the Arabian pitch his tent there, neither shall the shepherds make their fold there; but wild beasts of the desert shall lie there, and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures, and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there; where the word שׂעורים, which we translate satyrs, the LXX. render διαμονια, demons, or devils, who were supposed sometimes to take the shape of goats, or satyrs: and to haunt forlorn and desolate places; and it is from the translation of the LXX. that the apostle hath borrowed his images and expressions. According to this prediction, how horrid were the inhabitants of desolate Babylon to be as long as the world shall stand! Of invisible beings, devils and unclean spirits; of visible beings, every unclean beast, every filthy and hateful bird. Suppose then Babylon to mean here heathen Rome, and the fall predicted in this chapter to have been effected by Totilas, king of the Ostrogoths, as Grotius would persuade us, or by Alaric, king of the Visigoths, as the bishop of Meaux contends, how can Rome be said ever since to have been the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird, unless they will allow the popes and cardinals to merit these appellations? For all nations have drunk of the wine of her fornication, &c. She hath not only been guilty of idolatry herself, and with great wrath persecuted the true Christian faith, worship, and practice, but hath also corrupted the princes and nations of the earth, as if she had given them a cup of poisonous composition, to disorder their reason and inflame them into rage and fury, having prevailed upon them to commit the same sins of which she was guilty, and to propagate her corruptions by ambitious views, incitements to luxury, and prospects of gain. And the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies “The Romish clergy,” says Daubuz, “by trading in spiritual matters, have gotten vast wealth; these are the merchants of the earth, who by their Popish tricks and trinkets have gotten a good part of the wealth of the world into their hands. In short, Rome is a great mart; the Romish clergy are the merchants and factors; the secular, inferior clergy, the monks and friars, are the pedlers and hawkers which retail the merchandise. As for the luxury of Rome, procured by this trade, it needs no proof.