NT Text: Revelation 18:9
OT Source(s):
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type: Allusion
Connection Method(s): Analogy + Longitudinal Theme
Significance: Ezekiel 27 is an elaborate lament over Tyre featuring merchants, shipmasters, and kings weeping at the city's destruction. Revelation 18:9-19 follows the same three-fold structure: kings weeping (18:9-10), merchants mourning (18:11-17a), and shipmasters lamenting (18:17b-19). The verbal parallels extend to specific phrases: "standing at a distance" (Ezek 27:35; Rev 18:10, 15, 17), throwing dust on heads (Ezek 27:30; Rev 18:19), and the cry "What city was ever like this?" (Ezek 27:32; Rev 18:18). John transfers the Tyre lament to Babylon, fusing Ezekiel's commercial-imperial judgment with Jeremiah's Babylon oracles. This layering of Tyre and Babylon imagery shows that all godless commercial empires share the same pattern of luxurious pride followed by sudden desolation.