http://versebyversebibleteaching.com/?p=369 (Rev 18:17-18) For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off, And cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What city is like unto this great city! For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. The suddenness of the cities destruction is expressed, here it is described as having occurred in one hour, although it is expressed as “one day” in other places in this chapter. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, A third group of onlookers, is here introduced, they are people who were on the sea for various reasons. We have already seen the kings and merchants doing basically this same thing, that is lamenting the cities destruction. stood afar off, This is mentioned several times, back In Rev 18:10 is seems to suggest that the reason they were standing far off is that they somehow feared they would be affected by the aftermath of the cities destruction. And cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, This is the part that leads some to suggest that Mystery Babylon must be a port city. But this is not necessary; all that is said is that the smoke of its burning can be seen by the ships at sea. I would say that it is however necessary that the smoke from the burning of Mystery Babylon must be able to be seen from the sea in order to be consistent with this face value hermeneutic. Jerusalem is only 34 miles from the Mediterranean coast, and its smoke could easily be seen from the sea. An example from modern times is that people reported being able to see the smoke and debris from the 911 attacks on the World Trade Center from 70 or more miles away. This is a problem for those that insist that actual city of Babylon is Mystery Babylon because it is 300 miles from the nearest sea (the Persian Gulf), and a whopping 500 miles from the nearest coast of the Mediterranean. It would be impossible for this to be applied to the literal city of Babylon. Rome, by the way is also not a port city, being about 15 miles from the coast. This does not conflict with the fact that sea merchants bring goods to it, we see sea merchants bringing goods to Jerusalem in several places, notably the 1 kings 10 passages referring to King Solomon which we have already covered in depth. saying, What city is like unto this great city! The sailors say this phrase that hearkens us back to the prophecies regarding the city of Tyrus or Tyre we will be talking about in depth in the next verse. (Rev 18:19) And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas, that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate. This verse has some striking parallels to a passage in the Old Testament which is referring to the destruction of the merchant city of Tyrus. It says in Ezekiel 27:30-31: And shall cause their voice to be heard against thee, and shall cry bitterly, and shall cast up dust upon their heads, they shall wallow themselves in the ashes: And they shall make themselves utterly bald for thee, and gird them with sackcloth, and they shall weep for thee with bitterness of heart and bitter wailing. – Eze 27:30-31 This is especially interesting in light of the other parallels between the language of the fall of Tyrus or Tyre and Mystery Babylon, Some of which we covered in previous verses. I have found it interesting that the bible seems to go out of its way at times to refer to the destruction of Tyrus, and to the destruction of Babylon in the passages about Mystery Babylon. For instance in the passages about the destruction of literal Babylon in Jeremiah 51 there are phrases like O thou that dwellest upon many waters, abundant in treasures, thine end is come, and the measure of thy covetousness. - Jer 51:13 This is a clear connection to Mystery Babylon, which is said to “sit on many waters” in Revelation 17, the angel later gives us an interpretation as to what the water represent: And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues. - Rev 17:15 As I was reflecting on the significance of these cities as they relate to one another, I remembered a very interesting fact. Satan is referred to as the “King of Tyre” and the “King of Babylon” in different places in scripture. When we look at those Old Testament prophecies we will see that they would start out talking about the kings of these places, but before it’s over its clear the scope of the prophecy is far too big to simply be referring to these earthly kings. Let’s look first at a prophecy concerning The King of Tyrus: Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord GOD;