What Does Revelation 18:16 Mean in the King James?
And saying, Alas, alas, that great city, that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls!
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 city’s magnificence is something thrown around it: even its most dazzling identity is a covering.
THE MEANING
You see a city whose grandeur is assembled on its surface: fine linen, purple, scarlet, gold, precious stones, and pearls. The doubled cry holds grief for a city so wrapped in display. Its splendor is visible, yet the word for being clothed presents it as something laid around the city.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that visible wealth proves a city is secure; even here, its glittering clothing appears inside a cry of grief.
THE ROOT
περιβεβλημένη
peribeblēmenē
GROWS FROM
βάλλω
ballō
to throw, cast, or put
“clothed” in this verse is peribeblēmenē. The verb περιβάλλω (periballō, cast around) presents the city’s garments as material thrown over it: its grandeur surrounds it as an outer layer. The same root appears in ἐκβάλλω (ekballō, cast out), spanning what is put around and what is driven away.
ALSO GROWS
ballō: to cast, throw, or put
βάλλω
This is the seed within the word for being clothed: the finery is cast around the city.
ekballō: to cast out or drive away
ἐκβάλλω
The same root that can describe putting something around also appears in a word for casting something out, making the city’s covering feel like an outer layer rather than its substance.
THE PATTERN
Scripture makes clothing the visible sign of a figure’s splendor, while the source of that clothing changes what the splendor means.
And saying, Alas, alas, that great city, that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls!And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.THE THREAD
And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.Matthew uses the same verb περιβάλλω (periballō, cast around) for the lilies’ clothing. Revelation’s city is wrapped in costly goods; Matthew’s lilies surpass Solomon’s glory, opening the shared image of being clothed while exposing different sources of splendor.
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