Revelation 18:5; For Her Sins Have Reached unto Heaven
Revelation 18:5 For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.
A continuation of the call assigns an additional reason for God’s people to depart from Babylon, because her sins have reached unto heaven and God hath remembered her iniquities. The picture presented is an unusual one. The verb “have reached” is an unusual one. The verb “I glue together” is from the noun “glue”. The passive form means “cleave to”, “to join one another in a mass” or “to grow into a mass.” The idea is not that Babylon’s sins cling to heaven, but that they cling to each other steadily until heaven (Beckwith). The allusion is possibly to the use of bricks in building the tower of Babel where the destitute career of ancient Babylon began (Walvoord).
The phrase “unto heaven” paints the picture of a combined stack of bricks (ie. sins) so high that it elevates the four of heaven.
Jeremiah 51:9 We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed: forsake her, and let us go every one into his own country: for her judgment reacheth unto heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies.
Genesis 18:20-21 20 And the LORD said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous; 21 I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know.
The phrase “hath remembered” is prophetic. God will not forget the crimes of Babylon.
Revelation 16:19 And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.
The “iniquities” refers to crimes in a legal sense as it does in Acts 18:14, 24:20.
The massive misdeeds of the Babylonian system have indelibly impressed themselves on the memory of a God of justice. He must do the right thing by punishing Babylon for her iniquities, so it behooves God’s people to distance themselves from the city as far as they can.
[Robert L. Thomas, Revelation 8-22 An Exegetical Commentary, Moody, 1995, 321-322]