What Does Revelation 18:10 Mean?
Standing far off for the fear of her scourging, saying, Woe, woe, the great city Babylon, the strong city! For in one hour your judgment has come.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.THE KEY
The verse puts “mighty” beside a judgment that arrives in an hour, showing that power does not make a city untouchable.
THE MEANING
Right now, visible might does not keep a city from reaching its judgment in an hour. The watchers stand far off because its torment terrifies them; their cry holds the city’s scale and sudden end together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Power guarantees that a structure is beyond sudden judgment.
THE ROOT
κρίσις
krisis
GROWS FROM
κριν
To separate, decide, or judge.
“judgment” in this verse is krisis. The word carries the sense of a decision that distinguishes one outcome from another. The city’s might does not prevent that decision from arriving; “in one hour” makes the sudden change in its standing part of the verse’s force.
ALSO GROWS
krinō: To decide or judge.
κρίνω
This verb shares the κριν root and makes clear that the city’s κρίσις is a judgment rendered, not merely a general misfortune.
anakrinō: To examine, investigate, or evaluate.
ἀνακρίνω
This prefixed verb retains the κριν root; its sense of examination and decision illuminates the verdict named in the verse.
THE PATTERN
Apparent security cannot prevent a sudden reckoning.
But these two things shall come upon you in a blink, in one day, the loss of children and widowhood. They shall come upon you in full, for the multitude of your sorceries and the great abundance of your bindings.A man often reproved who stiffens his neck is broken suddenly, and there is no healing.But God said to him, Mindless one, this night your living soul will be demanded back from you. Then whose will those things be that you have made ready?THE THREAD
Truly, truly, I say to you, Whoever hears and responds to my word, and leans his full weight on him who sent me, has the life of the ages, and does not come under the judgment, but has crossed over from death into life.The word rendered “condemnation” here is κρίσις (krisis, judgment), from the same κριν (krin, decide or judge) root as the city’s judgment. John places that judgment beside passing from death to life, opening the word beyond Babylon’s collapse to a decisive outcome a person does not enter.
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