The response of the merchants to Babylon’s collapse (Revelation 18:11–17) serves to illustrate for readers over the centuries how completely anti-God-centred Babylon was. The excessive wealth, the distances the merchants travelled to acquire their wares, and the way they used other people all in turn demonstrate that Babylon sought her sense of happiness and well being strictly from earthly things, created things. The intensity of the merchants’ lament again illustrates that point. So the passage underscores that God the creator cannot and will not stand idly by while his glory is denied him and his creatures are abused for selfish reasons.
11 And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn for her, since no one buys their cargo anymore,