Verse 18 declares that the nations were angry in fulfillment of Psa 2:2; Psalms 2:5 and Acts 4:24-30. It represented the attitude of the heathen world toward the gospel of Christ. The day of God’ s wrath had come on the persecuting powers, as depicted in chapter 6:17. The time of the dead that they should be judged had come--they were dead as persecutors and as lord’ s of dominion over the servants of Christ, as in Isaiah 26:13; Isaiah 26:19 in reference to Israel. The time of avenging judgment had come, for the witnesses of chapter 11:7-8; and for the martyrs of chapter 6:9-11; and for “ all righteous blood shed upon the earth” of Matthew 23:35. The time had come to give victory’ s reward unto his servants the prophets; and to the saints; and them that fear thy name. The imagery delineates the ruin of the enemies and the reward of the servants and saints of God and Christ--summed up in the phrase small and great, the full aggregation of them that fear thy name. These all, in the aggregate, were included in song of glorified elders. The Jewish rulers, aided by Roman rulers, who together contrived to destroy the earth in their opposition to the kingdom of God, by the persecutions waged were themselves destroyed. In Matthew 21:33-46, Jesus specifically pictured this end of the Jewish rulers and their state.