Revelation 18:14

18:14-17 The merchants would lament the fall of Rome (see study note on 18:1-3) because it would forever end their accustomed luxuries. Material goods can be swept aside in a single moment.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Rev 18:14. Καὶ ἡ ὀπώρα, κ.τ.λ.) ὀπώρα in LXX. answers to the Hebrew קיץ, Jer 48:32, and denotes the fruits of trees. From those things, which were imported into the city by merchants, there is now a transition to those domestic delights, of which this one species only, ἡ ὀπώρα, there held of the greatest value, is expressed. But there afterwards follow two kinds; τὰ λιπαρὰ are the rest of the things in the manner of living, which are sources of delight with respect to herself: τὰ λαμπρὰ, consist in dress and clothing, having an appearance of splendour towards others. Therefore these words have a suitable place here, though some have suspected that they ought to be placed after Rev 18:23. But as the second person is employed in Rev 18:10, and also follows the third person in Rev 18:22, so it is here also.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

An apostrophe, or turning of the speech by imitation, used for more vehemence, as if those merchants, after the manner of mourners should in passionate speech speak unto Babylon, though now utterly fallen and overthrown. So Isa. 12:9, and in many other places.

By this is meant that season which is next before the fall of the leaf, at what season fruits ripen, and the word signifieth such fruits as are longed for.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Direct address to Babylon.

the fruits that thy soul lusted after--Greek, "thy autumn-ripe fruits of the lust (eager desire) of the soul."

dainty--Greek, "fat": "sumptuous" in food.

goodly--"splendid," "bright," in dress and equipage.

departed--supported by none of our manuscripts. But A, B, C, Vulgate, Syriac, and Coptic read, "perished."

thou shalt--A, C, Vulgate, and Syriac read, "They (men) shall no more find them at all."

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 14. And the fruits that thy soul lusted after.] και ἡ οπωρα της επιθυμιας της ψυχης σου. As οπωρα signifies autumn, any and all kinds of autumnal fruits may be signified by the word in the above clause.

Dainty and goodly] τα λιπαρα Delicacies for the table. τα λαμπρα,, what is splendid and costly in apparel.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(14) Directly addressed to Babylon herself.

And the fruits that thy soul . . .—Rather, And the fruits (or, the harvest) of the desire of thy soul (that, namely, which thy soul lusteth after) departed (not “are departed:” the word expresses the thought that these things “departed once for all”) from thee, and all things that are rich and that are glorious perish from thee, and thou shalt not find them any more. The descriptive passage is interrupted by this verse, in which Babylon herself is addressed. It is in harmony with the fervour of the whole chapter that the descriptive tone should for a moment give place to this apostrophe. The fruits to which the eye of desire had looked so longingly as to a harvest of delight departed. The desire of the wicked has perished.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

14. fruits … lusted after] Lit., the fruit-harvest of the desire of thy soul.

thy … thee … thee … thou] It seems as though the writer had forgotten the construction with which the long sentence, Rev_18:11-13, began: this verse stands as if the lamentation of the merchants were being quoted. In the next verse, it is described again, and then is quoted more regularly.

goodly] Lit., bright. R. V. “sumptuous.”

thou shalt find] Read, they shall find.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The merchants of these things,.... Before mentioned, who have traded in them for themselves and for Rome:

which were made rich by her, see Rev 18:3

shall stand afar off for fear of her torment; as the kings of the earth before, Rev 18:10 being conscious to themselves of their being partners in her crimes, and so might justly fear they should share in her punishment; and it may be, they will outwardly deny they are now of her religion, and will externally embrace the reformed religion; though they will be inwardly weeping and wailing for the destruction of Rome, and the loss of their merchandise and goodly things.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

14 And the fruits that thy soul lusted after are departed from thee, and all things which were dainty and goodly are departed from thee, and thou shalt find them no more at all.

Ver. 14. And the fruits] Those first ripe fruits, Mic 7:1, greedily desired and bought up at any rate by the richer and daintier sort of people.

Which were dainty and goodly] Gr. λιπαρα και λαμπρα, fat and fair-liking, pleasant to the eye as well as to the taste, confections, suckers, deserts, second and third services.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And the fruits that thy soul lusted after - Literally, “the fruits of the desire of thy soul.” The word rendered “fruits” - ὀπώρα opōra - properly means, “late summer; dog-days,” the time when Sirius, or the Dog-star, is predominant. In the East this is the season when the fruits ripen, and hence the word comes to denote fruit. The reference is to any kind of fruit that would be brought for traffic into a great city, and that would be regarded as an article of luxury.

Are departed from thee - That is, they are no more brought for sale into the city.

And all things which were dainty and goodly - These words “characterize all kinds of furniture and clothing which were gilt, or plated, or embroidered, and therefore were bright or splendid” (Prof. Stuart).

And thou shalt find them no more at all - The address here is decidedly to the city itself. The meaning is, that they would no more be found there.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

14. In this verse the second person thee, indicating direct address to Babylon, seems to be resumed from the thy of Rev_18:10, having been interrupted by the list of merchandise in the intervening verses.

Fruits that thy soul lusted after—Literal Greek, the harvest of the desire of thy soul. An harvest probably does not refer to fruits, but means the ingathering of all the above enumerated luxuries.

Dainty—Radically means, fat, and is so rendered by Alford, and would then seem to refer to animal foods. But more probably the secondary meaning, derived from the smoothness of a fat surface, is glossy or varnished, and is here applied to furniture. Dainty and goodly may be rendered glossy and glittering; and that, indeed, would preserve the alliteration really existing in the Greek words.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And the fruits that thy soul lusted after are departed from thee, and all things which were dainty and goodly are departed from thee, and thou shalt find them no more at all; all things that were dainty and splendid are perished from thee, and men shall find, etc. The Textus Receptus reads aphlyen , "are gone," as in 1; apwlonto is found in a, 7, and about twelve other cursives; apwleto is supported by A, R, C, P, and others, besides many versions and Fathers. This verse, containing a direct address to Babylon. has been thought by Vitringa and others to be misplaced; but this is unnecessary (cf. the similar circumstance in vers. 21-24).

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And the fruits - From what was imported they proceed to the domestic delicates of Rome; none of which is in greater request there, than the particular sort which is here mentioned. The word properly signifies, pears, peaches, nectarines, and all of the apple and plum kinds. And all things that are dainty - To the taste. And splendid - To the sight; as clothes, buildings, furniture.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

14. The fruits. These things for which Babylon so lusted are all gone from her forever.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

The fruit

"Fruit" here is a metaphor for "result" or "outcome." AT: "The result" (See: Metaphor)

longed for with all your might

"wanted very much"

vanished, never to be found again

Not to be found stands for not existing. This figure of speech can be stated in active form. AT: "vanished; you will never have them again" (See: Active or Passive and Metaphor)

translationWords

might

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

14. εὑρήσουσιν. Text. Rec[669] reads εὑρήσῃς with B2 εὔρῃς, 1 εὑρήσεις.

[669] Rec. Textus Receptus as printed by Scrivener.

14. See on Rev 18:11. If this verse is in its original context, the writer, after the long parenthesis of Rev 18:11-13, begins to quote without notice the lamentation of the merchants, which is introduced more regularly in Rev 18:16-17; and τούτων in Rev 18:15 seems to refer rather to the catalogue of merchandise than to πάντα … λαμπρά.

ἡ ὀπώρα σου … ψυχῆς. σου is generally made to depend upon τῆς ἐπ. τῆς ψυχῆς. In all other passages of the New Testament where σου stands before the substantive on which it depends, the word which comes before it has something of the force of a predicate, e.g. τοῦ αἴροντός σου τὸ ἱμάτιον, St Luk 6:29: ποῦ σου Θάνατε τὸ κέντρον; 1Co 15:55: oftener it is a verb. The Latins, who read σου after ὀπώρα, not after ψυχῆς, like Alford, made it depend on ὀπώρα.

τὰ λιπαρὰ καὶ τὰ λαμπρά. The first of these words is only found three times in the Bible, Neh 9:35 of a fat land; Isa 30:23 of bread, and here, where translators are probably right in explaining it of dainty food; both words continue the thought of ὀπώρα, λιπαρὰ for enjoyment, λαμπρὰ for display: otherwise the commoner sense in Greek would be expressed in Latin by omnia nitida (not pinguia) et splendida.

εὑρήσουσιν. This impersonal verb, though quite in the manner of the writer, comes in strangely after the vehement apostrophe.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

14.] This verse takes the form of a direct address, and then in the next the merchants are taken up again. From this some have thought that it is not in its right place: e. g. Beza and Vitringa fancied it should be inserted after ver. 23: others, as Ewald, that it was originally a marginal addition by the Writer. But irregular as is the insertion, it need not occasion any real difficulty. It takes up the κλαίουσιν κ. πενθοῦσιν of ver. 11, as if αὐτῶν after those verbs had been ἡμῶν, which is not unnatural in a rhapsodical passage. And τούτων, ver. 15, refers very naturally back to πάντα τὰ λιπαρὰ κ.τ.λ., in this verse. And thy harvest of the desire of thy soul (i. e. the ingathering of the dainties and luxuries which thy soul lusted after. It seems better on account of the following genitives to take ὀπώρα thus, than to understand it in the concrete of the fruit itself, though it frequently has this latter sense: see Palm and Rost’s Lex. and the reff. here) has departed from thee, and all (thy) fat things and [thy] splendid things have perished from thee, and they (men) shall never more at all find them.

The next two verses describe, in strict analogy with vv. 9, 10, the attitude and the lamentation of these merchants. The merchants of these things (viz. of all those mentioned in vv. 12, 13, which have been just summed up as πάντα τὰ λιπαρὰ κ.τ.λ.) who gained wealth from her, shall stand afar off by reason of their fear of her torment, weeping and mourning, saying, Woe, woe, the great city, which was lothed in stuff of fine linen and of purple and of scarlet, and bedecked (lit. gilded; the zeugmatic construction carrying on the word to the other substantives besides χρυσίῳ, which we cannot do in English) in (or, if ἐν be omitted, with) golden ornament and precious stone and pearl: because (ὅτι gives a reason for the οὐαὶ οὐαί) in one hour hath been desolated all that wealth.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The fruits [η οπωρα] . Originally, the late summer or early autumn; then, generally, used of the ripe fruits of trees. Only here in the New Testament. Compare the compound fqinopwrina autumn (trees). See on whose fruit withereth, Jude 1:12, and compare Summer - fruits, Jer 40:10.

That thy soul lusted after [της επιθυμιας της ψυχης σου] . Lit., of the desire of thy soul.

Dainty [λιπαρα] . From lipov grease. Hence, literally, fat. Only here in the New Testament. Homer uses it once in the sense of oily or shiny with oil, as the skin anointed after a bath. "Their heads and their fair faces shining" (" Odyssey, "14, 332). So Aristophanes (" Plutus," 616), and of oily, unctuous dishes (" Frogs, "163). Of the oily smoothness of a calm sea, as by Theocritus. The phrase liparoi podev shining feet, i e., smooth, without wrinkle, is frequent in Homer. Thus, of Agamemnon rising from his bed." Beneath his shining feet he bound the fair sandals "(" Iliad," 2, 44). Also of the condition of life; rich, comfortable : so Homer, of a prosperous old age, "Odyssey," 11, 136. Of things, bright, fresh. Of soil, fruitful. The city of Athens was called liparai, a favorite epithet. Aristophanes plays upon the two senses bright and greasy, saying that if any one flatteringly calls Athens bright, he attaches to it the honor of sardines - oiliness (" Acharnians, " 638, 9).

Goodly [λαμπρα] . A too indefinite rendering. Better, Rev., sumptuous. See on Luk 23:11; Jas 2:2. Mostly in the New Testament of clothing. See on ch. Rev 14:6.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.