(5) The fall of Jerusalem and citadels of oppression-- 16:18-21. The upheavals of verse eighteen in the visions of voices, and thunders, and lightnings . . . and a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the face of the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great, were the symbols of the fall of Jerusalem and the attending effects of the devastation of Judea, all of which resulted in the shaking of the nations of the empire itself; and though Jerusalem had fallen, the thunders and lightnings and earthquakes were not over until the persecuting nations received full measure of divine wrath from the cup of his indignation. History verifies the revolutionary reactions in governments symbolized by thunders and lightnings, culminating in wars between the nations of the empire in the coup d’ e tat of the conflict for power between the rulers, as in the wars of Nero Caesar. There is no need of leaving the ten epoch period of the persecutors signified in chapter 2:10 for the fulfillment of these symbols. As was true of the signs in Matthew 24:34, it was true of these symbols also: This generation shall not pass till all these be fulfilled. As the prophecy of Zec 14:4 foretold the city of Jerusalem as cleft in the midst before its fall, so verse nineteen sees that the great city was divided into three parts. It envisioned the partitioning of the city by the circumvallations of the Roman armies, as in Zechariah 14:1-21; and as suggested in the comments by Adam Clarke on the Zechariah prophecy and verified by the history of Josephus. The further statement that the cities of the nations fell signified the collapse of the citadels of oppression and the strongholds of evil influence in the operations of the beast and false prophet in their lying wonders and pseudo-signs of deception and seduction. The great Babylon that came in remembrance before God was the apostate Jerusalem, that faithful city turned harlot of Isa 1:21 designated in chapter 11:8 as the spiritual Sodom and Egypt where also our Lord was crucified. In the remembrance of her apostasies God gave unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath in divine retribution for her harlotry. In the process of this unrelenting succession of inexorable judgments, verse twenty declared that every island fled away, and the mountains were not found--that is, all the seats of authority and power of the Jewish theocracy faded away and disappeared. The fall of Jerusalem and the demolition of the temple effected the complete abrogation of Judaism and the abolition of the Jewish state. In the ultimate dispensation of judgment on the city and the land of the Jews and their state, verse twenty-one stated that there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven . . . and men blasphemed God because of the plaque of hail. This downpour of hail was preternatural--for the plague thereof was exceeding great--it was beyond normal evulsions from the elements; it was strange and inexplicable in its proportions. It signified the wrath of God which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation --described in the prolepsis of chapter 14:10. But the adherents of the satanic beast were not moved to repentance by any of these manifestations of divine judgment; rather, in complete allegiance to the evil powers they blasphemed God in steeped and stubborn resistance to His will.