Revelation 18:9Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

We think the kings of the earth are called rulers, as the Psalmist also said concerning Jerusalem: "Behold, its princes gathered together" (Ps 2:2). He says of those who have fallen away from the divine commandments that they will weep when they see or hear of its desolation and burning, and when they are horrified by what has suddenly happened in so short a time.

The kings, in doing repentance, do not bewail the evil of luxury, for they sinned with her. Rather, they know that the prosperity of the world is perishing, through which they served their pleasures.

Or this means that, since what they once loved for luxury begins to disappear among them, those who pursue luxury are destroyed by one another, like smoke from impending Gehenna.

"Standing afar off," John says, "for fear of her torment." They stand afar off not in body, but in spirit, since each fears for himself. He sees another suffering through slander and through the power of the proud.

This lamentation of the kings, merchants, and pilots of Babylon can be understood in two ways.

On the one hand, it may mean that, when all the glory of the world passes away on the day of judgment, only their past life will remain to the ungodly. They will say, "What profit did arrogance bring us, and what did wealth with vanity give us? All these things passed like a shadow" (Wis 5:8-9).

On the other hand, when abundance of things ceases in the present and the collapse of various nations draws near, the opportunity for enjoying carnal pleasures will be taken away. Before, it was everywhere present for satisfying the desires of corrupt men.

"When they see the smoke of her burning," that is, the sign of destruction, because smoke rises from fire. Indeed, in what else is the destruction and collapse of this world, if not in the approaching fire of Gehenna?

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.