"A Home for Demons...and the Merchants Weep"

Last week I wrote a post about Scooby-Doo and the demonic. Yeah, that's the kind of stuff I write about.

Anyway, in that post I noted the biblical connection between the demonic and the economic. Thinking about that association, is there any more poetic text on this subject than Revelation 18? It's just a masterpiece. And a cautionary tale.

Revelation 18.1-3, 11-17a, 20

After all this I saw another angel come down from heaven with great authority, and the earth grew bright with his splendor. He gave a mighty shout:

“Babylon is fallen—that great city is fallen!
She has become a home for demons.
She is a hideout for every foul spirit,
a hideout for every foul vulture
and every foul and dreadful animal.
For all the nations have fallen
because of the wine of her passionate immorality.
The kings of the world
have committed adultery with her.
Because of her desires for extravagant luxury,
the merchants of the world have grown rich.”

The merchants of the world will weep and mourn for her, for there is no one left to buy their goods. She bought great quantities of gold, silver, jewels, and pearls; fine linen, purple, silk, and scarlet cloth; things made of fragrant thyine wood, ivory goods, and objects made of expensive wood; and bronze, iron, and marble. She also bought cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, frankincense, wine, olive oil, fine flour, wheat, cattle, sheep, iPhones, horses, chariots, and bodies—that is, human slaves.

“The fancy things you loved so much
are gone,” they cry.
“All your luxuries and splendor
are gone forever,
never to be yours again.”

The merchants who became wealthy by selling her these things will stand at a distance, terrified by her great torment. They will weep and cry out,

“How terrible, how terrible for that great city!
She was clothed in finest purple and scarlet linens,
decked out with gold and precious stones and pearls!
In a single moment
all the wealth of the city is gone!”

Rejoice over her fate, O heaven
and people of God and apostles and prophets!
For at last God has judged her
for your sakes.