Paragraph 18:9–10
18:9–20
The Greek does not clearly indicate when the voice from heaven (18:4a) stopped speaking. There are two ways to interpret who spoke or wrote 18:9–20:
(1) The voice continued to speak here. The voice continued describing what will happen.
(2) The voice stopped speaking at the end of 18:8d. John then saw the events of 18:9–20 and wrote about them.
It is recommended that you follow interpretation (1), because the future tense continues from 18:8. So 18:9–20 are events that the voice told John about, just like 18:4–8.
Indicate that the voice continues speaking. In some languages introducing the quote again is necessary or more clear. For example:
⌊The voice continued,⌋ “When the kings…
-or-
⌊That person in heaven spoke further saying,⌋ “When the kings…
-or-
⌊That person’s voice continued speaking from heaven, saying,⌋ “When the kings…
18:9a–b
Then the kings of the earth who committed sexual immorality and lived in luxury with her will weep and wail at the sight of the smoke rising from the fire that consumes her: The kings’ actions are described in two ways here:
(a) they committed sexual immorality…with her,
(b) they lived in luxury with her.
What the kings actually did at the sight of the smoke is not written until after these descriptions. Your translation should make it clear that (a) and (b) above describe the customary deeds of the kings. You should not translate it as something they only did at this time. For example:
Regarding the kings of the earth who had committed adultery with her and shared her luxury, when they see the smoke
-or-
When the kings of the earth who had been committing adultery with her and sharing her luxury now see the smoke
18:9a
the kings of the earth: This phrase refers to the leaders of nations around the earth.
who committed sexual immorality: This clause probably symbolizes the kings as joining Babylon in sinning against God. See how you translated this clause at 17:2 or 18:3.
In some languages a literal translation would not indicate the symbolic meaning of committed sexual immorality. If that is true in your language, you may want to explain in a footnote. For example:
This saying is probably symbolic of joining Babylon in sinning against God.
But if you already have a footnote at 17:2a or 18:3b, you may not want to repeat the footnote here.
18:9b
lived in luxury with her: The Berean Standard Bible literally represents the Greek here. The kings satisfied their sensual desires together with her. This would include things like rare perfumes, wearing expensive clothing, and eating fancy foods.
luxury: The Greek word here refers to things that satisfy sensual desires. See how you translated this word in 18:7.
18:9c
weep: This word refers to tears that flow from the eyes because of great sadness. Here the word may also refer to the sounds people make when crying. But it probably does not refer to the loud noise of wailing here.
wail: This word refers to sounds people make when they are grieving. The kings will mourn because they will no longer be able to enjoy Babylon’s luxury and immoral life. Other ways to translate this word are:
grieve
-or-
have great sorrow
the smoke rising from the fire that consumes her: This phrase refers to the enemies of Babylon setting fire to her (18:8c). In some languages a literal translation would wrongly indicate that she was burning something. If that is true in your language, make the correct meaning clear. For example:
the smoke from the fire that burns her (NET Bible)
-or-
the smoke from the flames that consume her (Good News Translation)
© 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.