“And cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men.”
My Notes
What Does Revelation 18:13 Mean?
The merchandise catalog continues and culminates: cinnamon, spices, ointments, frankincense, wine, oil, flour, wheat, animals, horses, chariots—and then, at the very end: "slaves, and souls of men." The list moves from luxury goods to staple goods to living creatures to transportation to, finally, human beings. People are the last item on the list. The ultimate commodity. The final product in an economy that treats everything—including people—as merchandise.
The Greek phrase "sōmatōn, kai psychas anthrōpōn" literally reads "bodies, and souls of men"—making the dehumanization explicit. Babylon doesn't just trade in human labor. It trades in human bodies. And beyond the bodies: the souls. The system doesn't just own what you do. It owns who you are. The body is the commodity. The soul is the bonus. Total ownership of the human person.
The placement of slaves at the bottom of the list is theologically devastating: in Babylon's economy, human beings are worth less than cinnamon. The spices rank higher than the souls. The frankincense is listed before the people. The system that is being judged valued its products above its people—and God destroyed it for exactly that inversion.
Reflection Questions
- 1.Where do you see modern systems treating people as commodities—valuing what they produce rather than who they are?
- 2.If God destroyed Babylon for valuing goods above people, what does He think of systems that do the same today?
- 3.The list ends with 'souls of men.' What does it mean that the economy doesn't just want your labor but your soul—your identity?
- 4.God's valuation puts people above all merchandise. Does your lifestyle reflect God's valuation or Babylon's?
Devotional
The list of Babylon's merchandise ends with human beings: bodies and souls. After the gold and the silk and the cinnamon and the horses—at the very bottom, valued less than the spices—people. Slaves. Souls of men. The last item in an economy that treats persons as products.
The descent from gold to souls traces the true value hierarchy of Babylon's system: precious metals at the top, human beings at the bottom. The economy values what it can sell, and human souls are valued by what they can produce. The person isn't a person. They're a body—a unit of labor, a commodity with a market price. And beyond the body: the soul itself. Total ownership. Complete commodification. Nothing about you that isn't for sale.
"Souls of men" is the phrase that should stop you. Babylon doesn't just trade in labor. It trades in identity. In autonomy. In the irreducible dignity of being made in God's image. The system doesn't just want your time—it wants your soul. Your identity absorbed into its economy. Your personhood reduced to its utility. Your divine image priced and sold like cinnamon.
God destroys Babylon for this. The judgment that falls in Revelation 18 is specifically connected to the system's treatment of human beings as merchandise. The spices survived the catalog. The souls didn't survive the judgment. Because God values people above pearls, above silk, above every item that Babylon ranked above them. The system that inverted God's valuation gets overturned by the God whose valuation never changes.
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
And the fruits that thy soul lusted after are departed from thee,.... Or "the autumn of the desire of thy soul"; the…
And cinnamon - Cinnamon is the aromatic bark of the Laurus Cinnamomam, which grows in Arabia, India, and especially in…
And cinnamon - "By the sinamon is ment all maner of costly spyces, wherewith they bury their byshops and founders, lest…
Here we have,
I. A doleful lamentation made by Babylon's friends for her fall; and here observe,
1. Who are the…
and cinnamon Add "and amomum," a precious oriental ointment. The word was accidentally omitted by copyists, from its…
Cross References
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