Revelation 18:2 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen: whoever was meant by the angel whom John saw, Revelation 18:1, his business was to give warning to the whole world, (therefore he crieth with a strong voice, ) that Rome, the great city, the mother of spiritual harlots, should fall. This angel was a prophet, and the messenger of him who calls the things that are not as if they were; and therefore he speaks in a Divine, prophetic style: the prophets (ordinarily) speaking of things to come as past, or present, to denote the certain futurity of them, and doubling their words to assure us of it; for this, is fallen, is; expounded by shall be thrown down, Revelation 18:21. We read of this angel, Revelation 14:8; but it is ordinary with prophets to repeat the same things, and it is done as to the Chaldean Babylon, the type to this antitype, both Isaiah and Jeremiah declared in more than one sermon its certain approaching ruin. These words are taken from Isaiah 21:9, where the word fallen is doubled, as here. They are found also, Jeremiah 51:8. God here explaineth what he had said before, Revelation 14:8. And is become the habitation of devils, &c.: the words are such as might signify a sinful fall, or apostacy; and what is here, is true of it in that sense; idols in Scripture being ordinarily called devils: but they seem rather to be understood of a penal fall, for such is that spoken of Isaiah 21:9, after which it should become a habitation of devils, and a cage of unclean birds. See the like spoken of literal Babylon, Isaiah 13:19-21; wild beasts and hateful birds usually frequenting desolate places.