Revelation 18:16–21

¹⁶“How terrible, how terrible for that great city!

She was clothed in finest purple and scarlet linens,

decked out with gold and precious stones and pearls!

¹⁷In a single moment

all the wealth of the city is gone!”

And all the captains of the merchant ships and their passengers and sailors and crews will stand at a distance. ¹⁸They will cry out as they watch the smoke ascend, and they will say, “Where is there another city as great as this?” ¹⁹And they will weep and throw dust on their heads to show their grief. And they will cry out,

“How terrible, how terrible for that great city!

The shipowners became wealthy

by transporting her great wealth on the seas.

In a single moment it is all gone.”

²⁰Rejoice over her fate, O heaven

and people of God and apostles and prophets!

For at last God has judged her

for your sakes.

²¹Then a mighty angel picked up a boulder the size of a huge millstone. He threw it into the ocean and shouted,

“Just like this, the great city Babylon

will be thrown down with violence

and will never be found again.