<p>18:3- see on Rev. 17:18.</p><p><i>For by the wine of the anger of her fornication all the nations are fallen- </i>The &quot;anger&quot; in view is surely the anger of the judgment wrath of God against her &quot;fornication&quot;. The &quot;all nations&quot; are the kings of the earth / land associated with the Babylon confederacy have already at this point begun to drink of that cup which was given to Babylon earlier. Their identity with her (for &quot;he that is joined to a harlot is one flesh&quot; with her) means that Babylon's &quot;fall&quot; is their fall.</p><p>Note that being given a cup of wine to drink is a double symbol- of condemnation and also &quot;the cup of blessing&quot;. Hence at the breaking of bread we are to review the two possible outcomes of our being given that cup- blessing or condemnation. </p><p><i>For the kings of the earth had committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth grew rich by the power of her greed-&nbsp; </i>The &quot;all nations&quot; are here defined as the kings of the earth / land promised to Abraham. Not every nation on planet earth will be part of 'Babylon'. They grew rich by her prostitution for Babylon is a whore presumably in that wealth was given to her for her services, and her greed and love of opulence means that the commercial sector within the earth / land becomes rich. We are therefore to imagine this latter day entity as being immensely wealthy. Such a situation would probably require the financial collapse of the West and some Middle Eastern Islamic entity becoming fantastically wealthy as a result.</p><p>The first century applications would refer to the extreme wealth of the Jewish system based in Jerusalem. The Pharisees &quot;were covetous&quot; (Lk. 16:14), as Babylon was greedy. And Rome likewise. It would have seemed that Rome was invincible, economically and politically unshakeable, admired by the whole world. And yet it was to be brought down by Divine judgment.&nbsp;</p>