Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

18 After that I saw another angel coming down from the sky. He had much power. The bright light that shone from him lit up the earth.

² He called in a loud voice and said, `The big city of Babylon has fallen down! It has fallen down! Bad spirits live in it. All bad spirits hide there. And all kinds of dirty birds that people hate hide there.

³ All the nations are broken down because they are full of its wrong ways. The kings of the earth have joined with it. The traders of the earth have become rich because of its wrong ways.'

⁴ Then I heard another voice from the sky that said, `Come out of it, my people, so that you will have no part in the wrong things it does. Come out of it so that you will not have the big troubles it will have.

⁵ Its wrong ways are piled as high as the sky and God has remembered the wrong things it has done.

⁶ Do to it what it did to you. Yes, do two times as much to it as it did to you! From the cup it gave you to drink, give it two times as much to drink as it gave to you.

⁷ It is proud of itself and has done wrong things. Give it that much trouble and crying. It says in its heart, "I am like a queen. I am not like a woman who has lost her husband. I will never know sorrow."

⁸ So then, its big troubles will come in one day. Those troubles are death, crying, hunger, and being burned in a fire. The Lord who has punished it is strong.'

⁹ `And the kings of the earth were joined with it in its wrong ways. They will cry and be sad about it when they see the smoke while it burns.

¹⁰ They will stand far away from it because they are afraid of the trouble it is having. They will say, "Trouble! Trouble! You big, strong city Babylon! In one hour your punishment has come!"