What is the meaning of Revelation 18:8?

Therefore

- The word signals a conclusion drawn from the preceding warnings: “Come out of her, My people” (Revelation 18:4).

- Because the city (symbolic Babylon) has piled “sins as high as heaven” (Revelation 18:5), judgment is inevitable.

- Isaiah 47:7-9 foretells a proud power boasting of perpetual reign yet suddenly struck; Revelation echoes that certainty.

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Her plagues will come in one day

- “In one day” underscores suddenness and completeness, not a drawn-out decline.

• Isaiah 47:9: “Both of these will overtake you in a moment, in a single day.”

• Jeremiah 51:8: “Babylon will suddenly fall and be broken.”

- God’s timetable can compress what seems impossible into a single, decisive act (2 Peter 3:10).

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Death and grief and famine

- Threefold calamity speaks of total ruin:

• Death—life cut short, as in Revelation 6:8 where Death follows the pale horse.

• Grief—overwhelming mourning that shadows nations in Ezekiel 27:32-36.

• Famine—economic collapse echoing Ezekiel 5:12 and Lamentations 4:4-9.

- Literal plagues mirror earlier judgments on Egypt (Exodus 12:29-30; 7:18-21), showing God’s consistent pattern of repaying rebellion.

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She will be consumed by fire

- Fire pictures irreversible destruction, leaving nothing to rebuild.

• Revelation 17:16: the beast’s ten kings “will consume her with fire.”

• Jeremiah 51:30 and Isaiah 34:9-10 expand the image of cities left burning.

- Fire also reflects God’s holiness (Hebrews 12:29) and His purifying judgment that eliminates wickedness (Malachi 4:1).

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For mighty is the Lord God who judges her

- The ground of all this judgment is God’s omnipotence: He is “mighty” (Psalm 93:4), able to carry out every word.

- Revelation 15:3 praises Him as “King of the nations,” and Revelation 16:7 affirms, “True and just are Your judgments.”

- His power guarantees justice; no alliance, wealth, or strategy can withstand Him (Jeremiah 10:6).

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summary

Verse 8 declares that Babylon’s doom is sudden, comprehensive, and unalterable because the Lord God is supremely powerful and perfectly just. The city’s proud sins invite real, literal plagues—death, mourning, famine, fiery destruction—executed in a single, decisive stroke. Trusting God’s might and justice, believers can stand apart from corrupt systems and look forward to His righteous reign.