‘The fruit for which your soul longed has gone from you, and all your delicacies and your splendors are lost to you, never to be found again!’ The merchants of these wares, who gained wealth from her, will stand far off, in fear of her torment, weeping and mourning aloud, ‘Alas, alas, for the great city that was clothed in fine linen, in purple and scarlet, adorned with gold, with jewels, and with pearls!’ (vv. Listen to some of the dispatches:įrom Wall Street and the London Stock Exchange: And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn for her, since no one buys their cargo anymore, cargo of gold, silver, jewels, pearls, fine linen, purple cloth, silk, scarlet cloth, all kinds of scented wood, all kinds of articles of ivory, all kinds of articles of costly wood, bronze, iron and marble, cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, frankincense, wine, oil, fine flour, wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and chariots, and slaves, that is, human souls. Revelation 18 almost reads like a news report of the breakdown of civilisation. So the fall of Babylon is a symbolic way of describing the end of the world. In the Bible generally, and in Revelation in particular, Babylon represents the world against God - fallen, sinful humankind. ‘Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great!’ (Rev. It might sound like I’m describing the present worldwide Covid crisis, but actually I’m summarizing Revelation 18, where John sees the end of the world. It’s the only topic of conversation on people’s lips, the only subject in the news reports. It seems like no time at all since we were enjoying life as normal, and now the whole world is united in a great collective lament for the loss of that normality.
It’s as if it all took place in a single hour. What is especially remarkable about all this is the speed with which it has happened. The musicals on Broadway and the West End are cancelled, Carnegie Hall and the Royal Albert Hall lie silent. It used to be you could sample a different world cuisine for every night of the month, but now all the restaurants lie empty. Stores are closed and long-established household brands are going bust. Plague has brought the global economy crashing down trade and industry has ground to a standstill, except for essentials that ubiquitous first-world leisure activity - shopping - is a thing of the past. In no time at all, the world has changed.