Revelation: Chapters 17 and 18, comparing religious and commercial Babylon

Setting

An angel with great power and emitting light from his glory is seen by John. As has been seen before, another angel from the throne of God appears, embodying some characteristic of God, in this case "light". His message is the same as in previous occasions in Revelation 14:1-20, Revelation 17:1-18, and Revelation 18:1-24, that "Babylon the Great has fallen". Revelation 18:1-24 is contrasted with Revelation 17:1-18 in the table below to provide better insight between the two characteristics. There are several interesting differences between these two characteristics of Babylon.

Event	Religious Babylon Revelation 17:1-18	Commercial Babylon Revelation 18:1-24
Sequence of the fall	Occurs in the first 3 1/2 years of the tribulation	Comes into full fruition during the last 3 1/2 years of the tribulation
Who is speaking	One of the angels that poured out one of the bowl judgments	Another angel with great power
Name used	Mystery Babylon the Great, Mother of Prostitutes, and Abominations of the Earth	Babylon the Great
Destroyed by	The ten kings make her desolate, naked, eat her flesh, and burn her with fire	God Himself
Reaction by men	They hate her	The kings bewail and lament, the merchants weep and mourn, the shippers cried, weep, and wail
Reaction by the heavenly host	God's will is fulfilled	Rejoicing The 24 elders and 4 living creatures fall down and worship God