Revelation 18:3

18:3 For all the nations ¹  have fallen ²  from

the wine of her immoral passion, ³ 

and the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality with her,

and the merchants of the earth have gotten rich from the power of her sensual behavior.” ⁴ 

Revelation 18:7

18:7 As much as ⁵  she exalted herself and lived in sensual luxury, ⁶  to this extent give her torment and grief because she said to herself, ⁷  ‘I rule as queen and am no widow; I will never experience grief!’

Revelation 17:2

17:2 with whom the kings of the earth committed sexual immorality and the earth’s inhabitants got drunk with the wine of her immorality.” ⁸ 

Revelation 17:12-13

17:12 The ⁹  ten horns that you saw are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but will receive ruling authority ¹⁰  as kings with the beast for one hour. 17:13 These kings ¹¹  have a single intent, and they will give their power and authority to the beast.

[18:3]  ¹ tn Or “all the Gentiles” (the same Greek word may be translated “Gentiles” or “nations”).

[18:3]  ² tc ‡ Several mss (א A C 1006* 1611 1841 2030 Ï^K), including the best witnesses, read “have fallen” (πεπτώκασιν or πέπτωκαν [peptwkasin or peptwkan]). The singular πέπτωκεν (peptwken), which is better grammatically with the neuter plural subject πάντα τὰ ἔθνη (panta ta eqnh, “all the nations”), is read by 1854 2062 pc; 2042 pc read πεπότικεν (pepotiken). A few mss (1006^c 2329 pc latt sy^h) read “have drunk” (πέπωκαν/πεπώκασιν, pepwkan/pepwkasin); the singular πέπωκεν (pepwken) is read by P 051 1 2053* al. The more difficult reading and that which has the best ms support is “have fallen.” That it is not too difficult is evidenced by the fact that the great majority of Byzantine minuscules, which have a tendency to smooth out problems, left it stand as is. Nonetheless, it is somewhat difficult (TCGNT 683 says that this reading is “scarcely suitable in the context”), and for that reason certain mss seem to have changed it to “have drunk” to agree with the idea of “wine” (οἴνου, oinou). One can understand how this could happen: A scribe coming to the text and seeing the term “wine” expects a verb of drinking. When he sees “have fallen” and knows that in Greek the verbs “have fallen” and “have drunk” are spelled similarly, he concludes that there has been a slip of the pen in the ms he is using, which he then seeks to correct back to the “have drunk” reading. This appears to be more reasonable than to conclude that three early uncials (i.e., א A C) as well as a great number of other witnesses all felt the need to change “have drunk” (πέπωκαν) to “have fallen” (πέπτωκαν), even if “fallen” occurs in the immediate context (“fallen, fallen, [ἔπεσεν ἔπεσεν, epesen epesen] Babylon the great” in the preceding verse). The preferred reading, on both external and internal grounds, is “have fallen,” and thus the Seer intends to focus on the effects of wine, namely, a drunken stupor.

[18:3]  ³ tn See the notes on the words “passion” in Rev 14:8 and “wrath” in 16:19.

[18:3]  ⁴ tn According to BDAG 949 s.v. στρῆνος and στρηνιάω, these terms can refer either to luxury or sensuality. In the context of Rev 18, however (as L&N 88.254 indicate) the stress is on gratification of the senses by sexual immorality, so that meaning was emphasized in the translation here.

[18:7]  ⁵ tn “As much as” is the translation of ὅσα (Josa).

[18:7]  ⁶ tn On the term ἐστρηνίασεν (estrhniasen) BDAG 949 s.v. στρηνιάω states, “live in luxury, live sensually Rv 18:7. W. πορνεύειν vs. 9.”

[18:7]  ⁷ tn Grk “said in her heart,” an idiom for saying something to oneself.

[17:2]  ⁸ tn This is the same word translated “sexual immorality” earlier in the verse, but here the qualifier “sexual” has not been repeated for stylistic reasons.

[17:12]  ⁹ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[17:12]  ¹⁰ tn For the translation “ruling authority” for ἐξουσία (exousia) see L&N 37.35.

[17:13]  ¹¹ tn The word “kings” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to clarify the referent.