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And the fruits that thy soul lusted after - και ἡ οπωρα της επιθυμιας της ψυχης σου . As οπωρα signifies autumn, any and all kinds of autumnal fruits may be signified by the word in the above clause.

Dainty and goodly - Τα λιπαρα· Delicacies for the table. Τα λαμπρα, what is splendid and costly in apparel.

And the fruits that thy soul lusted after - Literally, “the fruits of the desire of thy soul.” The word rendered “fruits” - ὀπώρα opōra- properly means, “late summer; dog-days,” the time when Sirius, or the Dog-star, is predominant. In the East this is the season when the fruits ripen, and hence the word comes to denote fruit. The reference is to any kind of fruit that would be brought for traffic into a great city, and that would be regarded as an article of luxury.

Are departed from thee - That is, they are no more brought for sale into the city.

And all things which were dainty and goodly - These words “characterize all kinds of furniture and clothing which were gilt, or plated, or embroidered, and therefore were bright or splendid” (Prof. Stuart).

And thou shalt find them no more at all - The address here is decidedly to the city itself. The meaning is, that they would no more be found there.

Verse 14

Gluttony Rebuked. — The fruits here mentioned are, according to the original, “autumnal fruits;” and in this we find a prophecy that the “delicacies of the season,” upon which the luxurious gormand so sets his pampered appetite, will be suddenly cut off. This, of course, is the work of the famine, which is the result of the fourth vial. Chapter 16:8. And we may be even now having a premonition of this destruction in the phylloxera of the vineyards, the “yellows” of the peach orchards, and other recent enemies to vegetation.DAR 676.4

In this connection we can hardly forbear glancing at the general aspect of the times in respect to the remarkable physical phenomena everywhere manifesting themselves, as they seem so plainly to indicate that all the courses of nature are disturbed, and that the earth itself is waxing old in anticipation of the time when it shall vanish away. Within a few years past, how many unnatural visitations of storm and fire and flood have wrought ruin in different localities, and awakened forebodings of fear in the hearts of men in general. Witness the Chicago fire, the Wisconsin fires, the Michigan fires, in connection with all which there were manifested strange and unaccountable phenomena; the floods of the Ohio, the Mississippi, and other Western rivers; the devastating floods of Europe; the famines of China and India; the cyclones and tidal waves, sweeping away the proudest works of man, and hurling thousands of human beings into untimely graves.DAR 676.5

But we have no need to go so far into the past. Look at the occurrences of more recent times. The year 1882 was considered a phenomenal and fatal year; but the disasters of the first seven months of 1883 overbalanced those of the whole year preceding. In January, one hundred and ten persons perished by floods and fires; in February, one hundred and twenty-seven by floods; in March, eleven by fire; in April, three hundred and four by tornadoes; in May, one hundred and thirty-two by the Brooklyn-bridge panic and by tornadoes; in June, fifty-eight by tornadoes and floods; in July, one hundred and one by disasters. The foregoing casualties occurred in this country. In the Old World, the fatalities were still more appalling. There, during the same time, two thousand two hundred and sixty-three persons perished by floods, fires, and other disasters. To mention some, in India and Egypt, nearly twenty-two thousand fell victims to the cholera. Then comes the earthquake at Ischia, Italy, July 28, with nine thousand victims, and the volcanic eruptions and subaqueous earthquake of Java, August 26, in which a tract of country fifty miles square, containing a range of mountains sixty-five miles in length, sunk below the level of the ocean, whose waters rushed in, and now cover all that space. Islands also in the adjacent straits of Sunda disappeared, and in all one hundred thousand persons are supposed to have perished. This gives the appalling aggregate of over one hundred and thirty thousand persons who perished by violent deaths, chiefly through disturbances of the elements and the convulsions of nature, during that fateful year. And similar disturbances have followed with more or less severity in subsequent years. Look at the disastrous earthquakes in Japan in 1896, in which more than ten thousand persons lost their lives, and the panic in which thousands of Russian peasants perished at the coronation of the czar, in the same year.DAR 677.1

The mourners had shared Babylon's sensual pleasures, and gained by her wealth and trade. The kings of the earth, whom she flattered into idolatry, allowing them to be tyrannical over their subjects, while obedient to her; and the merchants, those who trafficked for her indulgences, pardons, and honours; these mourn. Babylon's friends partook her sinful pleasures and profits, but are not willing to share her plagues. The spirit of antichrist is a worldly spirit, and that sorrow is a mere worldly sorrow; they do not lament for the anger of God, but for the loss of outward comforts. The magnificence and riches of the ungodly will avail them nothing, but will render the vengeance harder to be borne. The spiritual merchandise is here alluded to, when not only slaves, but the souls of men, are mentioned as articles of commerce, to the destroying the souls of millions. Nor has this been peculiar to the Roman antichrist, and only her guilt. But let prosperous traders learn, with all their gains, to get the unsearchable riches of Christ; otherwise; even in this life, they may have to mourn that riches make to themselves wings and fly away, and that all the fruits their souls lusted after, are departed from them. Death, at any rate, will soon end their commerce, and all the riches of the ungodly will be exchanged, not only for the coffin and the worm, but for the fire that cannot be quenched.