<p>18:19 <i>And they cast dust on their heads and cried, weeping and mourning, saying: Woe, woe, the great city, wherein all that had their ships in the sea were made rich by reason of her expense For in one hour she is made desolate</i>- This casting of dust on the head is sometimes (as with the Ninevites), but not always, associated with repentance. It may be significant that there is no apparent record of the destruction of these merchants. Are we to hope that they repented? Perhaps the idea is that they have the possibility to do so. As noted earlier, their observing of the smoke of Babylon's judgment connects them with faithful Abraham, watching the judgment of Sodom. The vagueness as to whether this refers to repentance or not is perhaps because this is yet unknown- for these people have freewill, and shall make their own decision regarding repentance after Babylon's judgment. But their weeping contrasts with the rejoicing of the believers (:20). Their particular weeping for their now redundant fleets of ships speaks of how their economies were tied in to servicing Babylon with luxury goods; and now that was suddenly, in an hour, no more. Their whole economic structure was useless. And despite all the evidence of Divine involvement and all the evidence of His visible involvement in this earth again, they could only see the immediate and the material, what was right before their eyes. And tragically that is how the majority of people are today.</p>