What Does Revelation 18:11 Mean in the King James?
And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more:
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The merchants’ grief begins where exchange ends: their cargo is still there, but the market no longer gives it a buyer.
THE MEANING
The verse shows a trading world whose demand disappears: no one buys the merchants’ cargo, and they weep over her. Their grief exposes how completely their prosperity depends on a market that can stop receiving what they sell.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that market value guarantees security: buyers can vanish, leaving the cargo unwanted.
THE ROOT
ἀγοράζει
agorázei
GROWS FROM
ἀγοράζω (agorázō), from ἀγορά (agorá)
The base word ἀγορά (agorá) means marketplace; ἀγοράζω (agorázō) means to buy or trade in that marketplace.
The Greek verb carries the marketplace inside the act of buying. English “buyeth” can sound like a simple purchase, while the Greek keeps the merchants inside a system of exchange, and the verse says that system has no buyers left.
ALSO GROWS
agorá: Marketplace or public square
ἀγορά
The verb’s market setting makes the disappearance of buyers the precise failure the merchants grieve.
exagorázō: Buy out; redeem
ἐξαγοράζω
This related verb adds the sense of buying out, as in Galatians 3:13, showing how the same market word family can describe both exchange and release.
THE PATTERN
Trade and stored wealth depend on conditions they cannot control, so abundance can lose its value in a moment.
Thy riches, and thy fairs, thy merchandise, thy mariners, and thy pilots, thy calkers, and the occupiers of thy merchandise, and all thy men of war, that are in thee, and in all thy company which is in the midst of thee, shall fall into the midst of the seas in the day of thy ruin.Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?THE THREAD
For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.The verb translated “are bought” shares the ἀγοράζω root behind Revelation’s “buyeth.” Here the same marketplace language is applied to people, sharpening how exchange can shape a whole vision of value and possession.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us