Revelation 18:5

5 for her sins have reached unto Heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.

Revelation 18:5 Meaning and Commentary

Revelation 18:5

For her sins have reached unto heaven
Or "have followed unto heaven"; one after another, in one age after another, until they have been as it were heaped up together, and have reached the heavens; the phrase denotes the multitude of them, God's knowledge and notice of them, and the cry of them to him; see ( Genesis 18:20 ) ( Jonah 1:2 ) the Alexandrian copy and Complutensian edition read, "have cleaved", or "glued", and so the Syriac and Arabic versions seem to have read; her sins were as it were soldered together, and stuck fast to her, and being joined and linked together, made a long chain, and reached to heaven, and cleaved to that, and cried for vengeance:

and God hath remembered her iniquities;
and is about to punish her for them; for as forgiveness of sin is signified by a non-remembrance of it, so punishment of sin by a remembrance of it, and of the persons that commit it; see ( Revelation 16:19 ) .

Revelation 18:5 In-Context

3 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 have waxed rich through the abundance of her indulgences pleasures."

4 And I heard another voice from Heaven, saying, "Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues;

5 for her sins have reached unto Heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.

6 Reward her even as she has rewarded you, and unto her double according to her works; in the cup which she hath filled, fill to her double.

7 How much she hath glorified herself and lived voluptuously! That much torment and sorrow give back to her; for she saith in her heart,`I sit a queen and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.'