Babylon Is Fallen Part 3
The angel’s prayer for justice is based on the Old Testament principle of lex talionis, the law of retaliation, the principle of “an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth”
Babylon has been extended enough grace and heard enough warnings. It is time for vengeance. It is time for her destruction.
The angel’s request that God give back to Babylon double according to her deeds (literally in the Greek “double the double things”) is a request that Babylon’s punishment fit her crimes. Double has been her iniquity; double must be her punishment. Babylon’s sins have overflowed, piling up as high as the heavens, and the angel calls for God’s judgment to overflow on her in equal measure.
Further stating his request that God fully punish Babylon, the angel asks that in the cup which she has mixed, God would mix twice as much for her. Fittingly, in the very cup that Babylon used to deceive the nations (v. 3; 14:8; 17:2, 4; Jer. 51:7) she is to receive a double portion of God’s wrath.