Revelation 18:3 - Exposition

For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. "The wine" is omitted in A, C, but it is inserted in א , B, and retained in the Revised Version. "The wrath" is omitted (cf. the expression in Revelation 14:8 and Revelation 17:2 ). And the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her. (On the figure employed, as well as the identical language, see Revelation 17:2 .) And the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. The "abundance" (Greek, δύναμις , which Vitringa renders by copia, referring to Job 31:25 ; Ezekiel 28:4 , LXX .). "Delicacies." (Greek, στρῆνος , occurs in the New Testament only here, and as a verb in Revelation 18:7 , Revelation 18:9 , and (compounded) in 1 Timothy 5:11 . It signifies overweening pride and insolence and wantonness, arising from superfluity of wealth and gifts. Cf. the warning to the Church of Laodicea ( Revelation 3:17 ).