Is Babylon in Revelation 16:19 a single city or a group of commercial cities?
Revelation 16:19 depicts Babylon not as a single city but as a consortium of the world's great commercial centers—Tokyo, Singapore, Hong Kong, and others. The great city divides into three parts, the cities of the nations fall, and Babylon comes in remembrance before God to receive the cup of His fierce wrath.
Les explains that in Revelation 16, during the final bowl judgment tied to Armageddon and hundred-pound hailstones, verse 19 describes the great city being divided into three parts and the cities of the nations falling. He gets the concept there that all the great commercial centers of the world—Tokyo, Singapore, Hong Kong, and others—will go down in just a moment of time. The phrase great Babylon carries the same idea: not one city, but the whole consortium of great commercial cities. Babylon then comes in remembrance before God to receive the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath. Les also notes that while God has been patient and gracious, one day His patience and grace will end, and His wrath will fall.
And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.
Is the 'great Babylon' in Revelation one city or something else?
Great Babylon in Revelation is not a single city. The passage describes it as the whole consortium of great commercial cities—all the great commercial centers of the world, such as Tokyo, Singapore, and Hong Kong—falling together in judgment when Babylon comes in remembrance before God.
What does Revelation mean when it says the cities of the nations fell?
Revelation means that all the great commercial centers of the world—not one city but the whole consortium of commercial cities—will fall suddenly, in a moment of time, under God's wrath. Babylon, representing this collective system, comes into remembrance before God to receive the cup of His fierce wrath.