The angel had already announced, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great” (Revelation 18:2), presenting her fall as an accomplished (and hence continuous) reality valid for the course of the new dispensation. From her ruins, though, the “Babylon” mindset will continue to attempt to build a world without God (with kings assisting), but will never ultimately succeed. John sees “kings” (all of whom come and go over the centuries of the new dispensation—and thus future from John’s vantage point in the first century) responding to the evidence of Babylon’s fall as they encounter it in repeated fashion over the centuries. Of course, on the day of Christ’s return in glory to judge the living and the dead, the weeping and wailing of the kings will reach its climax, that is, an eternal weeping and wailing in the horrors of hell (Matthew 13:42).
9 And the kings of the earth, who committed sexual immorality and lived in luxury with her, will weep and wail over her when they see the smoke of her burning.