Revelation 18:2
And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.
Study Note
Study Note
The angel's proclamation 'Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen' quotes Isaiah 21:9 verbatim, anchoring John's vision in the prophetic oracle against historical Babylon while applying it to the Roman imperial city his audience would recognize. The threefold description of fallen Babylon as 'habitation of devils, hold of every foul spirit, cage of every unclean and hateful bird' employs desolation imagery from Isaiah 13 and 34 (Edom's wilderness) to depict comprehensive spiritual pollution replacing the city's former glory. The perfect tense 'is fallen' (epesen) uses the prophetic perfect, announcing as accomplished what is still future, a rhetorical strategy signaling divine certainty rather than temporal fulfillment. The verse has shaped Christian prophetic traditions of imperial critique from the patristic period through Reformation-era anti-papal polemics and modern liberation theology.
Other Translations
And he cried with a mighty voice, saying, Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, and is become a habitation of demons, and a hold of every unclean spirit, and a hold of every unclean and hateful bird.
and he did cry in might--a great voice, saying, `Fall, fall did Babylon the great, and she became a habitation of demons, and a hold of every unclean spirit, and a hold of every unclean and hateful bird,
And he gave a loud cry, saying, Babylon the great has come down from her high place, she has come to destruction and has become a place of evil spirits, and of every unclean spirit, and a hole for every unclean and hated bird.
Cross References
There shall the great owl make her nest, and lay, and hatch, and gather under her shadow: there shall the …
But the cormorant and the bittern shall possess it; the owl also and the raven shall dwell in it: and …
And, behold, here cometh a chariot of men, with a couple of horsemen. And he answered and said, Babylon is …
And he cried, A lion: My lord, I stand continually upon the watchtower in the daytime, and I am set …
I will also make it a possession for the bittern, and pools of water: and I will sweep it with …
And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces: and …
And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees’ excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and …
And thou shalt say, Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise from the evil that I will bring upon …
So Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that should come upon Babylon, even all these words that are …
And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwellingplace for dragons, an astonishment, and an hissing, without an inhabitant.