Revelation 18:21 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Revelation 18:21
And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all.
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Jeremiah 51:63-64 And it shall be, when thou hast made an end of reading this book, that thou shalt bind a stone to it, and cast it into the midst of Euphrate…
Ezekiel 26:21 I will make thee a terror, and thou shalt be no more: though thou be sought for, yet shalt thou never be found again, saith the Lord GOD.
Revelation 5:2 And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof?
Job 20:8 He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found: yea, he shall be chased away as a vision of the night.
Daniel 11:19 Then he shall turn his face toward the fort of his own land: but he shall stumble and fall, and not be found.
Revelation 12:8 And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.
Revelation 16:20 And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.
Revelation 18:22 And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman, of whatsoev…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Revelation 18:9–end
Here we have,
I. A doleful lamentation made by Babylon's friends for her fall; and here observe,
1. Who are the mourners, namely, those who had been bewitched by her fornication, those who had been sharers in her sensual pleasures, and those who had been gainers by her wealth and trade - the kings and the merchants of the earth: the kings of the earth, whom she had flattered into idolatry by allowing them to be arbitrary and tyrannical over their subjects, while they were obsequious to her; and the merchants, that is, those who trafficked with her for indulgences, pardons, dispensations, and preferments; these will mourn, because by this craft they got their wealth.
2. What was the manner of…
a--Greek, "one."
millstone--Compare the judgment on the Egyptian hosts at the Red Sea, Exo 15:5, Exo 15:10; Neh 9:11, and the foretold doom of Babylon, the world power, Jer 51:63-64.
with violence--Greek, "with impetus." This verse shows that this prophecy is regarded as still to be fulfilled.
Adam Clarke on Revelation 18:21
Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down - This action is finely and forcibly expressed by the original words: Οὑτως ὁρμηματι βληθησεται Βαβυλων ἡ μεγαλη πολις. The millstone will in falling have not only an accelerated force from the law of gravitation, but that force will be greatly increased by the projectile force impressed upon it by the power of the destroying angel.
Shall be found no more at all - In her government, consequence, or influence. This is true of ancient Babylon; we are not certain even of the place where it stood. It is also true of Jerusalem; her government, consequence, and influence are gone. It is not true of Rome pagan; nor, as yet, of Rome…
And a mighty angel,.... Not Christ, nor one of the ministering spirits, but some man or set of men, perhaps the same with him in Revelation 18:1
took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea; just as Jeremiah took a stone and bound it to his book after he had read it, and cast it into the river Euphrates, as a sign and token of the destruction of old Babylon, Jeremiah 51:63
saying, thus with violence shall that great city be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all; which is expressive of the utter destruction of Rome, and of the violence, force, and power with which it will be destroyed, and of the suddenness and swiftness of its destruction, and of the irrecovera…
The Church Fathers
Just as a millstone sinks with force into the sea, so also the destruction of this Babylon will be sudden, so that afterward no trace of her will be found. The absence of harpers, minstrels and the rest is an indication of this.
Babylon is likened to a great millstone which is thrown down, for the revolving of times, as though it were a millstone, grinds down those who love the world, and it sends them in circles. Of these the Scriptures say, "The wicked walk in a circle."
And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying: With this violence shall Babylon be thrown down. Or (as another edition says): Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be cast down. The city of the world, due to the weight of sins and error, is compared to an unstable millstone. For the wicked walk in a circle. It is rightly absorbed by the waves of vengeance because it oppressed the citizens of Jerusalem with the waves of infidelity, while they, sitting by the rivers of Babylon, wept for the absence of heavenly Zion. For the Lord said that the authors of scandal should be punished with such a penalty. And indeed the Church is compared to a stone, but stable and firm, which scorns the assaults of storms. The millstone can also be understood as the crushing of punishments. For blessed Ignatius is said to have said when about to suffer: "I am the grain of God, ground by the teeth of beasts, that I may become pure bread."
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Angels — By the word “angels” (i.e. “messengers” of God) we ordinarily understand a race of spiritual beings of a nature exalted far above that of man, although infinitely removed from that of God—whose…
Blasphemy · The wicked addicted to — The wicked addicted to
Martyrdom · Of saints, shall be avenged — Of saints, shall be avenged
Mills · Stones used in: Large — Stones used in: Large
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
The songs responding to Babylon’s fall (18:1-24) conclude with a portrayal of the city’s doom.
18:21 a boulder the size of a huge millstone: Heavy millstones, shaped for grinding olives or grain, were used throughout the ancient world. Jesus also spoke of using such stones in judgment (see Matt 18:6). The dramatically thrown boulder signified that the power of Rome was forever thrown down.
