1172. Verses 18, 19. And cried out when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What is like this great city? And they cast dust upon their heads, and cried out weeping and mourning, saying, Woe, woe, that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea, by reason of her costliness; because in one hour they are devastated.
"And cried out when they saw the smoke of her burning," signifies grief of mind on account of dire falsities, from seeing punishment on account of those falsities, which flowed from the loves of them; "saying, What is like that great city," signifies astonishment that that doctrine and religion should be destroyed; "And they cast dust upon their heads, and cried out weeping and mourning," signifies confession that by a life according to that religion and its doctrine they were damned; "saying, Woe, woe, that great city wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea, by reason of her costliness," signifies lamentation over the doctrine and religion from which gain was made by all those who confirmed them by reasonings from the natural man; "because in one hour they are devastated," signifies, over the loss and destruction of everything.