‘After these things I heard as it were a great sound of a vast crowd in Heaven, saying, “Halleluyah. The salvation and glory and power are of our God, for true and righteous are his judgments, for he has judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her fornication, and he has avenged the blood of his servants at her hand”. And a second time they say “Halleluyah”.'
These appear to be the voices of the heavenly beings for they are impersonal, ‘the blood of his servants' rather than ‘our blood'. They declare the rightness and glory of what God has done. He has passed judgment on the great prostitute, the defiled woman, Babylon the Great. The rise of Babel has been reversed, the centres of sin have been destroyed, the great prostitute is dead, the martyrdoms of His servants have been avenged, the time for mercy is past, judgment has been exacted on her, the time for final judgment has come.
The fall of Great Babylon, symbol of corruption and sexual misbehaviour and greed, will shortly be followed by the manifestation of the Bride in her glory (Revelation 19:7) and of the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21:2), home of honour, purity and unselfish love. They have battled through the ages, the depraved scarlet woman against the pure Bride, Great Babylon against the heavenly Jerusalem, the world against the people of God, and now the Bride and the new Jerusalem have triumphed.
That these are the voices of heavenly beings is confirmed by the fact that ‘great voices' are always heavenly (Revelation 1:10; Revelation 11:12; Revelation 11:15; Revelation 16:1; Revelation 16:17). But then in contrast in Revelation 19:5 ‘you His servants', referring back to the reference to His servants in Revelation 19:2, are also commanded to give praise, and do so in Revelation 19:6, as ‘the voice of a great multitude' (compare Revelation 7:9) and ‘the voice of many waters' (compare Revelation 14:2) and ‘the voice of mighty thunders' (compare Revelation 14:2). These phrases are previously used of the redeemed. Thus here the voices are of the mighty company of the redeemed. Note the contrast of ‘great sound of a vast crowd' (‘great voice of a great multitude') (Revelation 19:1) with ‘voice of a great multitude' (Revelation 19:6). The heavenly cry is a ‘great voice' while the earthly is a ‘voice'.
The worship of the heavenly beings is threefold, (‘salvation, and glory and power'), signifying its completeness, as in Revelation 4:9, ‘glory, honour and thanks' (the living creatures) and Revelation 4:11, ‘the glory and the honour and the power' (the twenty four elders), and in contrast with Revelation 5:12 and Revelation 7:12 (sevenfold from the angels) and Revelation 5:13 (fourfold from the creatures of earth). It almost parallels Revelation 4:11 except that ‘salvation' replaces ‘honour'. In Revelation 4:9; Revelation 4:11 ‘glory' came first, for all eyes were on the One on the throne, but here ‘salvation' comes first because all eyes are on the fact that the final deliverance is here. The threefoldness therefore also serves to confirm that the great multitude of Revelation 19:1 includes the living creatures and the elders.
This is the first use of the term ‘hallel-u-yah' (‘praise you Yahweh') in the New Testament. It is used twenty four times in the psalms. Its first use there parallels its use here, ‘let sinners be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked be no more. Bless the Lord, Oh my soul. Halleluyah' (Psalms 104:35). Here the cry arises because sinners have been consumed out of the earth in the form of the demise of Babylon the Great. Justice has been obtained and God's servants have been avenged. Note that here it is then repeated, something which is stressed. And again it is connected with the fall of Babylon the Great. Her smoke goes up for ever and ever'.