(4) And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, (5) Come out of her, my people, that ye (6) be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.
(4) The second prediction, which is of the circumstances of the ruin of Babylon: of these there are two types: one going before it, as beforehand the godly are delivered, to the ninth verse (Revelation 18:5-9): the other following on her ruin, namely the lamentation of the wicked, and rejoicing of the godly, to the twentieth verse (Revelation 18:10-20). (5) Two circumstance going before the ruin, are commanded in this place: one is that the godly depart out of Babylon: as I mentioned in chapter twelve to have been done in time past, before the destruction of Jerusalem: this charge is given here and in the next verse. The other is, that every one of them occupy themselves in their own place, in executing the judgment of God, as it was commanded of the Levites in (Exodus 32:27) and that they sanctify their hands to the Lord. (6) Of this commandment there are two causes: to avoid the contamination of sin and to shun the participation of those punishments that belong to it.