18:16a–b
saying: “Woe, woe to the great city, clothed in fine linen and purple and scarlet…”: These words were probably spoken about Babylon, rather than to her. She is not addressed by the pronoun “you” in the following verses. For example:
saying, ‘Woe, woe, the great city, she who was clothed in fine linen… (New American Standard Bible)
Woe, woe to the great city: The words naming the thing spoken about, the great city, are in the middle of the sentence. Many languages must have the great city first for a natural sentence and place the words Woe, woe at the end of the sentence. Also, many languages must locate the description of that thing immediately after naming the thing spoken to. For example:
O great city, clothed in fine linen and purple and scarlet, adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls—woe, woe!
18:16a
saying: The Berean Standard Bible represents the Greek literally here. Some other English versions use the phrase “and cry out” to indicate the meaning of “speak with much emotion.” That meaning is implied here. See how you translated the word “cry” in 18:10.
Woe, woe: The word Woe is repeated to emphasize its meaning. But in some languages it is more natural not to repeat the word. If that is true in your language, you should emphasize the woe in a natural way. For example:
Great woe ⌊indeed⌋ !
See how you translated this phrase in 18:10.
the great city: The Berean Standard Bible literally represents the Greek here. Some English versions add the word “O” (as in the New International Version (1984)). In English it probably indicates a formal address, as speaking to someone of high status. Some English versions, like the Berean Standard Bible, do not add this word.
great: The city of Babylon is called great because at that time it was an important and famous city. It had a vast empire and great influence. See how you translated this word in 18:2.
18:16b
clothed in fine linen: The merchants speak about Babylon as if that city is a woman clothed in fine linen. Earlier, John saw Babylon figuratively as a woman (17:1–18).
In some languages it is not natural to refer to a city as a woman. If that is true in your language, you may want to change this metaphor into a simile. For example:
⌊she was like a woman⌋ clothed in fine linen
fine linen: Here the word fine indicates that the linen was very good quality. See how you translated this phrase in 18:12.
purple and scarlet: This phrase refers to the colors of the cloth. Making purple and scarlet cloth was expensive at that time. For example:
expensive purple and scarlet clothing
See how you translated the words purple and scarlet in 18:12.
18:16c
adorned: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as adorned means “wearing.” A woman wore gold, precious stones and pearls in order to look beautiful. This word may refer to jewelry or to things fastened to the dress or both. Other ways to translate this word are:
decorated
-or-
glittering with (New International Version)
See how you translated this word in 17:4.
gold and precious stones and pearls: See how you translated these words in 18:12.
© 2020 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.