Revelation 18:12Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

After these words one must understand: no one buys. We must judge and consider what city customarily trades in these things, and what people usually strive to acquire what is superfluous for immoderate enjoyment.

They mourn the loss of all the spectacles of the world and of everything pleasant to the bodily senses or useful for outward use. Various metals belong to sight, fragrances to smell, ointments to touch, and wine, wheat, and oil to taste. Moreover, when they speak of beasts of burden and slaves, they lament that they have lost other human assistance. As I have just said, that lament can be understood in two ways. Either they perish together with this dying world, or those wretched ones who outlive those who left worldly joys behind in death weep as though mourning the destruction of their own city.

Unrestrained and luxurious life bore the fruits that became the cause of Babylon's fall. Perhaps, in an allegorical sense, the sea is the present life, shaken by many disturbances. Those trading in it are all who feel at home in this life as fish do in water.