Revelation Chapter 18 Verse 1

1 After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority; and the earth was made bright with his splendor.

Chapter 18 is a form of prophetic literature called a “doom song” that is common in the Old Testament. Isaiah 13:19-22 is a doom song for Babylon. Isaiah 34:11-15 is a doom song for Edom. Zephaniah 2:13-15 is a doom song for Nineveh. In each case, the ruin of a great city is described in vivid, poetic language interspersed with apocalyptic speech. Here — just as a careful student of the Old Testament should have expected — we have a doom song for Rome.

Verse 1 reconfirms that this message of doom and the judgment that it relays are from God. The verse also brings to mind Ezekiel 43:1-2 where we read that “the earth shone” with the glory of God. Swete writes that this angel has “so recently ... come from from the presence [of God] that in passing he brings a broad belt of light across the dark earth.”

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