What Does Revelation 18:8 Mean in the King James?
Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.
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
In one day, the blows that end Babylon reveal that the final power in the scene belongs to the Judge.
THE MEANING
The verse meets the reader with a collapse compressed into one day: plagues, death, mourning, famine, and burning arrive together. It places the judged power beneath the strength of the Lord God, whose judgment is the final word in the scene.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a powerful order can make itself untouchable: the one judged remains answerable to a stronger authority.
THE ROOT
πληγαί
plēgai
GROWS FROM
πλήσσω
plēssō
To strike or smite; πληγή names a blow or stroke, and by extension a plague or calamity.
“plagues” in this verse is plēgai. The Greek word can mean a physical blow as well as a plague. That keeps the verse’s disasters vivid: death, mourning, famine, and fire are blows that land together, not merely an abstract list of misfortunes.
ALSO GROWS
plēgē: A blow, stroke, wound, or plague.
πληγή
This is the singular form behind the verse’s πληγαί; the calamities retain the image of strikes landing.
plēssō: To strike or smite.
πλήσσω
The verb preserves the force beneath the noun: what comes upon her is pictured as a series of blows.
κρίνων
krinōn
GROWS FROM
κρίνω
krinō
To judge, decide, or distinguish.
“judgeth” in this verse is krinōn. The Greek participle κρίνων means “the one judging her,” naming God through an active act. The related words κρίσις (krisis, judgment or decision) and κριτής (kritēs, judge) keep the judge and the judgment visibly joined.
ALSO GROWS
krisis: Judgment or decision.
κρίσις
It names the decision that the act of judging brings into view.
kritēs: Judge.
κριτής
It names the one who carries out the act expressed by κρίνων.
THE PATTERN
Stored power cannot make its owner immune to sudden judgment.
But these two things shall come to thee in a moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood: they shall come upon thee in their perfection for the multitude of thy sorceries, and for the great abundance of thine enchantments.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?Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.THE THREAD
And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.The Greek πληγάς (plēgas, blows) translated “wounded” here is the same word as πληγαί (plēgai, blows or plagues) in Revelation. One scene shows blows landing on a traveler; the other names the blows that overtake Babylon.
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