What Does Revelation 18:23 Mean in the King James?
And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.
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 vanished light and wedding voices expose a world whose celebrated greatness stands beside a sorcery that leads whole nations astray.
THE MEANING
The verse shows a world losing the signs of ordinary life: its lamp goes dark, and the voices of a wedding fall silent. Its merchants are its great ones, while its sorceries lead nations off course.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Prosperity proves that a society is flourishing and its influence is trustworthy.
THE ROOT
πλανήθησαν
planēthēsan
GROWS FROM
πλαν-
To wander, or to cause someone to wander; to lead astray.
“deceived” in this verse is planēthēsan. The Greek word makes deception directional: it is being led off course, not merely receiving a false fact. Here, whole nations are carried away together.
ALSO GROWS
planē: Wandering; error or deception.
πλάνη
The same word family holds both straying and the error that results, making deception a course nations are pulled onto.
planētēs: Wanderer; a wandering star or planet.
πλανήτης
The word preserves the root’s sense of motion, echoing the image of nations led away from their course.
φαρμακείᾳ
pharmakeia
GROWS FROM
φαρμακ-
The Greek word family of potions or drugs, and practices of magic or sorcery.
“sorceries” in this verse is pharmakeia. This family reaches from potions and drugs to the practice called sorcery. That gives the word a sense of influence that acts on perception; the verse names the result as nations being led astray.
ALSO GROWS
pharmakon: A drug, remedy, or poison.
φάρμακον
This related word shows the family’s association with substances that can alter or affect a person.
pharmakeus: A sorcerer or practitioner of magic.
φαρμακεύς
This names the practitioner of the magic called pharmakeia, linking the practice to the people who wield it.
THE PATTERN
When an order comes under judgment, its collapse is heard in the disappearance of ordinary shared life: music, work, light, and weddings.
Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the candle.The mirth of tabrets ceaseth, the noise of them that rejoice endeth, the joy of the harp ceaseth.And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in thee; and the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee;THE THREAD
And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.The same Greek word family appears in both verses: here nations are led astray, and there the dragon is the one leading the whole world astray. The shared root connects the city’s sorceries to a wider pattern of deception.
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