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Echoes of Revelation
Revelation never quotes the Old Testament outright, yet no New Testament book refers to it more. See both texts side by side, why they don’t match, and what John does with them.
Revelation 18:6, pay her back as she paid
The call to repay Babylon as she repaid others comes from Jeremiah's oracle on Babylon and Psalm 137, and the double portion from Jeremiah and Isaiah.
Revelation 18:6, in every translation this tool compares.
A refund policy that matches what you paid is fair by design. Jeremiah called for Babylon to be repaid for her deeds, done to as she had done. Psalm 137 blesses whoever repays Babylon for what she did to God's people. John hears a voice say to repay Babylon as she repaid, and to pour her a double share in her own cup. The old prayers for justice against Babylon are now answered.
Repayment in kind. The Greek of Jeremiah 50:29 says repay her (antapodote aute) according to her works. Psalm 137:8 blesses the one who repays you the repayment you repaid us. Revelation 18:6 says repay her (apodote aute) as she also repaid, according to her works. Jeremiah 16:18 says God will repay double (diplas).
Jeremiah addresses archers attacking Babylon; the psalmist blesses an unnamed avenger; John's command has no named hearer, and Beale thinks God's agents and ultimately God are meant. Jeremiah 16:18 speaks of Judah repaid double; John turns it on Babylon. John adds the cup she mixed, filled for her in turn.
Beale says the punishment fits the crime. He follows Kline, who argues the word usually rendered double means a matching equivalent. Babylon's sins are balanced by equal punishment in God's scales. Keener reads double as more than complete repayment.
Not permission for believers to take revenge. Beale and Wright say God himself carries out the repayment.
Beale says the wording first evokes Psalm 137:8 in the Greek, which he sets beside 18:6a, and then Jeremiah 50:29 (repay her according to her works) and 51:24 (I will repay Babylon), so that historical Babylon's punishment becomes a type of the final one. On double he follows Kline: in the Hebrew kapal and the Greek diploo, the sense is a duplicate or matching equivalent, shown in texts John may allude to (Isaiah 40:2; Jeremiah 16:18). That removes the clash with the measure-for-measure principle in 18:6-7. He adds the cups of Ezekiel 23:31-35, Psalm 75:8 and Habakkuk 2:15-16. Keener cites Jeremiah 50:15, 29 and Isaiah 40:2 and says double meant more than complete. The NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, the ESV Study Bible, the CSB Study Bible's cross-references and the NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible all cite Isaiah 40:2 and Jeremiah 16:18, and the last adds Psalm 137:8 and Jeremiah 50:29; 51:24. The grade is drawn here: the repayment wording follows Jeremiah and the psalm closely.
The sources disagree on double. Beale, after Kline, reads it as an exact equivalent, keeping the punishment equal to the crime. Keener reads it as more than complete. The ESV Study Bible calls it a just repayment that duplicates the violence Babylon did, and the CSB Study Bible says full measure and more. Beale also weighs whether God's people, angels or God are addressed. MacArthur reads double as full or overflowing, so that the punishment fits the crime.
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- G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary), comment on 18:6
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Revelation 18:6
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Revelation 18:6
- ESV Study Bible, note on Revelation 18:6
- CSB Study Bible, note on Revelation 18:5-8 and cross-references at 18:6
- NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible, note on Revelation 18:6
- Septuagint, Jeremiah 50:29, Psalm 137:8 and Jeremiah 16:18, Interlinear Greek-English Septuagint
- SBL Greek New Testament (MorphGNT), Revelation 18:6
- John MacArthur, The MacArthur Study Bible (ESV), note on Revelation 18:6
