19:1 Alleluia. The great cry, “Alleluia,” sounds out four times from the great assembly in heaven (Revelation 19:1, 3, 4, 6), and these are the only occurrences of the word in the New Testament. Meaning, “Praise the Lord!” it is the same as “Hallelujah,” and occurs in the Hebrew in the first and last verses of each of the last five psalms of the book of Psalms. These final “Hallelujah Psalms” thus may well represent the praise songs of all the redeemed as they gather in preparation for the great marriage supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19:9).

19:3 for ever and ever. The smoke plumes from the burning of Mystery Babylon (Revelation 17:16) as well as that from the restored city of Babylon itself (Revelation 18:8-9,18), whatever may have been their respective proximate causes, will continue ascending forever into space even after the fires themselves have ceased, obeying God’s eternal law of mass conservation and bearing mute testimony to the eternal suffering of those who will shortly be dispatched to the lake of fire (Revelation 14:11).