For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.
Drunk - Revelation 14:8; Revelation 14:10, from which "the wine" may be interpolated. They have drunk of her fornication: the consequence will be wrath to themselves. So Vulgate; but 'Aleph (') A B C, read х peptookasin (G4098) for pepookasin], '(owing to the wrath of her fornication all nations) have fallen.' The harder, so the more probable, reading. As the nations 'have fallen' through her, so she, in retribution, "is fallen" herself (Revelation 18:2). Before the beast slays the two witnesses (Revelation 11:1-19), then the beast is destroyed.
The wine. So 'Aleph (') B, Syriac, Coptic; but A C, Vulgate, omit.
Abundance - `power,' resources.
Delicacies, х streenous (G4764)]. Note, 1 Timothy 5:11, where the verb "wax wanton" is akin to the noun. 'Resources of' - i:e., subserving 'wanton luxury.' Reference is not to earthly, but spiritual wares, indulgencies, idolatries, superstitions, worldly compromises, wherewith the apostate church has made merchandise of men. This applies especially to Rome and the Greek apostasy; but even Protestant churches are not guiltless. The principle of Evangelical Protestantism is pure: the principle of Rome and the Greek churches is not so.