<p>18:23 <i>The light of a lamp shall never shine again in you, and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall never be heard again in you-</i> The Old Testament basis for this is not simply the judgments upon Babylon, but also those upon Jerusalem at the hand of Babylon (Jer. 7:34; 16:9). For latter day Babylon shall be built in Jerusalem; see on 16:19. So it is appropriate also that what Babylon did to Jerusalem shall be done to her. This all suggests that Babylon shall desolate and judge Jerusalem in the latter days and then in turn be judged for doing so. Jerusalem will fall to her enemies, as Zech. 14 and the Lord's Olivet Prophecy clearly require. </p><p>The contrast is with how the Lord Himself will be the eternal light of Jerusalem, the city of God (22:5; Is. 60:19,20). A new Jerusalem shall come down from God out of Heaven to replace the burnt ruins of the Babylon system there.</p><p><i>For your merchants were the princes of the earth; and with your sorcery were all the nations deceived</i>- All the princes of the earth / land were influenced by her wine, making them drunk with a fanaticism against Israel and true Christians. This radical jihadist propaganda was accepted by the merchants because it made them wealthy by serving the demands of Babylon. We can therefore see the West accepting her sorcery to some extent, for purely economic motives. Although the ten horns / kings of the land are to be destroyed, they are here associated with the &quot;merchants&quot;, those not within Babylon itself, but serving her. </p>