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.
Ver. 10. Standing afar off] As fearing their own safety, they will not venture themselves for an old withered harlot, that is now (Lais-like) ready to be extinct in the last act of her uncleanness, Λαις τελευτωσ ' απεθανε βινουμενη. (Athenaeus, xiii.)
For in one hour] God will make short work of it when once he begins, Romans 9:28. This should be an encouragement to Christian princes and states, to set upon the service. The pirates' war was incredibili celeritate et temporis brevitate confectum, saith Austin, soon despatched; so shall this. Papists vaunt now of their temporal felicity, as a note of their Church, and make catalogues of the strange victories that the Catholics have had. Bellarmine brags, that vix unquam fuerunt haeretici superiores quando iusto proelio dimicatum est (tom. ii. lib. 4, cap. 14), the heretics scarcely ever had the day when it came to be tried in a just battle. But if all this had been true (as it is not), yet at last, in one hour shall their judgment come. See Revelation 18:19; Revelation 18:22. See Trapp on " Rev 18:19 " See Trapp on " Rev 18:22 "