Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
Revelation 18:3 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 3. 3For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
This verse links nations, kings, and merchants to her intoxicating luxury and exploitation.
Fallen Babylon is named as a haunt and a market of kings
This verse is one part of that explanation in Revelation 18:1-8. The complete section carries the connected meaning and how it should shape life.
Read It With
- Revelation 18:1-8
Read Revelation 18:3 with 18:1-8. This verse links nations, kings, and merchants to her intoxicating luxury and exploitation. The complete unit's controlling movement is: A glory-bearing angel announces fallen Babylon as a haunt, names her intoxicating political economy, and a heavenly voice calls God's people out before sudden plagues answer her self-glory.
Why This Verse Appears Here
The preceding movement establishes: Revelation 17:7-18 established this prior movement: The angel identifies waters as peoples, heads as mountains and kings, horns as short-lived allied rulers, the beast as doomed, and the woman as the ruling city; the coalition finally destroys her under divine purpose. This unit then contributes: A glory-bearing angel announces fallen Babylon as a haunt, names her intoxicating political economy, and a heavenly voice calls God's people out before sudden plagues answer her self-glory. The following movement develops: Revelation 18:9-20 continues the book through this next movement: Political and commercial beneficiaries mourn Babylon from a distance as her luxury market vanishes; the cargo list climaxes in enslaved bodies and human lives before heaven is called to rejoice at divine judgment. At Revelation 18:3, this verse links nations, kings, and merchants to her intoxicating luxury and exploitation.
Follow the Context
- The fall announcement, indictment, exodus-like call, repayment oracle, boast, and sudden-judgment conclusion make one speech sequence.
- A glory-bearing angel announces fallen Babylon as a haunt, names her intoxicating political economy, and a heavenly voice calls God's people out before sudden plagues answer her self-glory.
- 'Come out' calls for dissociation from complicity and may have social and economic costs; it need not require geographic flight. Double repayment is prophetic rhetoric under divine judgment, not a private revenge formula.
What This Verse Is Not Saying
Revelation 18:3 does not turn the fact that it links nations, kings, and merchants to her intoxicating luxury and exploitation into a standalone universal rule.
What Remains True
Revelation 18:3 shows that links nations, kings, and merchants to her intoxicating luxury and exploitation; its faithful force remains governed by creator worship, the slain Lamb, truthful witness, patient endurance, justice, and new creation.
Teach It Back
Explain Revelation 18:3's specific contribution to Revelation 18:1-8: links nations, kings, and merchants to her intoxicating luxury and exploitation. Include the surrounding movement, one material uncertainty, and what the verse does not authorize.
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Continue in Context
Read the complete section for the connected explanation and how it should shape life. This verse is a doorway into that passage, not a saying that stands alone.
Read Revelation 18:1-8 — Leave Babylon's Exploitative Sins before Her FallSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? probable
Where care is needed
The package keeps the leading alternatives visible and weights them by textual, historical, literary, and reception evidence rather than pretending every proposal is equally strong. 'Come out' calls for dissociation from complicity and may have social and economic costs; it need not require geographic flight. Double repayment is prophetic rhetoric under divine judgment, not a private revenge formula.
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording, paragraph markers, supplied-word markup, and complete coverage.
Exact location: Revelation 18:1-8, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗Greek textual evidence
The Greek New Testament: SBL Edition
Michael W. Holmes, editor; Society of Biblical Literature and Logos
Society of Biblical Literature and Logos Bible Software, 2010
Supports: Greek wording and sentence relations checked independently of the KJV.
Exact location: Faithlife SBLGNT official repository, data/sblgnt/text/Revelation.txt, 18:1-8
Open the Revelation Greek text file ↗Translation and textual notes
NET Bible — Revelation with translators' and textual notes
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2005–2026 online edition
Supports: Verse-level translation, syntax, textual variants, imagery, cross-references, and stated alternatives.
Exact location: NET Bible Revelation PDF, printed pp. 2408–2447, 18:1-8 and attached translator/textual notes
Open the official NET Revelation PDF ↗