Revelation 18:18

18 and began to cry out [when they] saw the smoke of her burning, saying, "Who [is] like the great city?"

Revelation 18:18 Meaning and Commentary

Revelation 18:18

And cried when they saw the smoke of her burning
(See Gill on Revelation 18:9)

saying, what city is like unto this great city?
as before for magnificence and grandeur, so now for sorrow, desolation, and ruin; nor was any city like it for power and authority, for pride and luxury, for idolatry and superstition, blasphemy and impenitence; the like the sailors say of Tyre, ( Ezekiel 27:30 ) from whence this and other expressions are borrowed in this lamentation.

Revelation 18:18 In-Context

16 saying, "Woe, woe, the great city, dressed in fine linen and purple cloth and scarlet cloth, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls,

17 because in one hour such great wealth has been laid waste!" And every shipmaster and {every seafarer} and sailors and all those who labor on the sea stood {far off}

18 and began to cry out [when they] saw the smoke of her burning, saying, "Who [is] like the great city?"

19 And they threw dust on their heads and were crying out, weeping and mourning, saying, "Woe, woe, the great city, in which all those who had ships on the sea became rich from her prosperity, because in one hour she has been laid waste!"

20 Rejoice over her, heaven and the saints and the apostles and the prophets, because God has pronounced your judgment on her!"

Footnotes

• [a]. *Here "[when]" is supplied as a component of the participle ("saw") which is understood as temporal