[431] Exod. ix. 10. [432] Exod. vii. 20. [433] Exod. x. 21. [434] Isa. xi. 15, 16. [435] Isa. li. 10. [436] Zech. x. 10-12. [437] 1 Kings xxii. 19-22. [438] Judges v. [439] 2 Chron. xxxv. 22. [440] Ephes. ii. 2. [441] Chap. xi. 2; xx. 9. [442] Chap. vi. 14. [443] Chap. xx. 11. CHAPTER XIII. _THE BEAST AND BABYLON._ REV. xvii. At the close of chap. xvi. we reached the end of the three great series of judgments which constitute the chief contents of the Revelation of St. John,--the series of the Seals, the Trumpets, and the Bowls. It cannot surprise us, however, that at this point other visions of judgment are to follow. Already we had reached the end at chap. vi. 17, and again at chap. xi. 18; yet on both occasions the same general subject was immediately afterwards renewed, and the same truths were again presented to us, though in a different aspect and with heightened colouring. We are prepared therefore to meet something of the same kind now. Yet it is not the whole history of that "little season" with which the Apocalypse deals that is brought under our notice in fresh and striking vision. One great topic, the greatest that has hitherto been spoken of, is selected for fuller treatment,--the fall of Babylon. Twice before we have heard of Babylon and of her doom,--at chap. xiv. 8, when the second angel of the first group gathered around the Lord as He came to judgment exclaimed, "Fallen, fallen, is Babylon the great, which hath made all the nations to drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication;" and again at chap. xvi. 19, when under the seventh Bowl we were told that "Babylon the great was remembered in the sight of God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath." So much importance, however, is attached by the Seer to the fortunes of this city that two chapters of his book--the seventeenth and the eighteenth--are devoted to the more detailed descriptions of her and of her fate. These two chapters form one of the most striking, if at the same time one of the most difficult, portions of his book. We have first to listen to the language of St. John; and, long as the passage is, it will be necessary to take the whole of chap. xvii. at once:--