God punishes the city of Babylon
1After these things, I saw another angel who came from heaven. This angel was very strong, and he could do a lot of things, and the light that was around him shone on the earth. 2The angel shouted_loudly and said:
‘Babylon, the big city, has fallen.
It has been destroyed.
Yes, it is broken down.
The devils are now living there,
all the evil_spirits come together there,
all the impure birds go there,
and all the impure animals that people hate
come together there.
3It is the end for Babylon
because she was like a prostitute.
People of all nations have slept with her.
They did not stop,
and they wanted to have
more and more sex with her.
The kings of the earth
did immoral things with her
and the merchants became rich
because she was strong and
she bought expensive things from them.’
4Then I heard Someone in heaven who said:
‘My people, you must get out of that city.
Then you will not sin with people of the city
and God will not punish you with them.
5The people of that city
have done a lot of sins.
It is like a big heap of sins
as high as the sky.
Yes, God has remembered
all the bad things that they have done.
6You must do the same to them
as they have done to you.
You must punish them twice
for every bad thing that they did.
They gave you the cup_of_suffering
and you had to drink it.
Now you must give them
the cup_of_suffering to drink
and they must drink it twice.
7The people of that city are like a woman
who made herself beautiful,
and who bought very expensive things.
Now you must hurt her and make her suffer
because she says to herself:
“I am a queen. I am not a widow.
I will never cry and mourn.”
8But I will punish her
many times in one day.
She will have diseases, she will mourn,
and there will be famine.
The Lord God will burn her
because He is the strong God.’
9The kings of the earth did immoral things with the woman, the city of Babylon, and they bought expensive things for her. But they will see how she burns in the fire and they will cry and mourn for her. 10They will stand far away and look because they will be afraid that God will also punish them. Then they will say:
‘It is bad, very bad.
The big city of Babylon suffers.
Yes, the strong city of Babylon suffers.
God has punished her quickly.
He has punished her in one hour.’
11The merchants of the earth will cry and mourn for her because no one wants to buy their things. 12No one buys their gold, silver, jewels or pearls. No one buys their fine materials, their purple materials, their silk or their red materials. No one buys their many kinds of sweet-smelling wood, their different things made of ivory, or their things made of expensive wood, copper, iron or marble. 13Yes, no one buys anything from the people who sell cinnamon, spices, incense, perfumes, spices that smell good, wine, olive oil, the best flour, wheat, cattle, sheep, horses, wagons, slaves and people.
14Yes, Babylon, you loved
to have a lot of things,
but now it is all gone, and now you have nothing.
All your expensive things,
all your bright things,
you will never see again.
15The merchants became very rich because they sold a lot of things to her. But now they will stand far away and only look because they will be afraid that God will punish them too. They will cry and mourn and 16they will say:
‘It is bad, very bad.
The big city of Babylon suffers.
She always had beautiful clothes.
Her material was purple and red.
She had golden jewels
and she looked beautiful
with her gemstones and pearls.
17But God destroyed it in one hour.
Now there is nothing
of the city that was so rich before.’
The captains of all the boats were standing far away, and also the people on the boats and all the seamen and the people who worked on the boats. 18They saw the city burning and they shouted and said: ‘There was no other city as wonderful as this great city.’
19And they put sand on their heads and cried and mourned. They said:
‘It is bad, very bad.
The big city of Babylon suffers.
She was rich and
she made all the people rich
who have boats on the sea.
But God destroyed her in one hour.’
20Yes heaven, you must be happy.
Everyone who belongs to God
must be happy.
The apostles and prophets must be happy,
because Babylon punished you,
and now God has punished her.
21A strong angel picked up a stone that was as big as a grinding-stone. He took the stone and he threw it into the sea and said:
‘God will throw Babylon
into the sea like this.
She will fall hard and people
will never see her again.
22No one will ever hear
anyone playing a harp in that city again.
No one will hear anyone
singing there again.
No one will hear anyone
playing a flute or a trumpet.
No one will find an artisan working there.
No one will hear anyone
grinding wheat there.
23The light of a lamp
will never burn again in Babylon.
And no one will hear the voices
of a bride and a bridegroom there.
Babylon, the merchants in you
were the most important in the world,
you used magic
and you made people of all nations
do bad things.
24You killed the prophets
and the people who belong to God.
Yes, you killed a lot of people on earth.’
