18:17a

For: The Greek conjunction that the Berean Standard Bible translates as For is often translated as “because.” This conjunction introduces the reason for the saying of woe in 18:16.

in a single hour: Here the phrase a single hour refers to a short time, not necessarily a literal hour. It implies suddenness. Translate this phrase as you did in 18:10.

such fabulous wealth has been destroyed!: This clause is passive. Some languages must use an active clause. For example:

she has lost all this wealth (Good News Translation)
-or-
all the wealth of the city is gone (New Living Translation (2004))

Your translation should indicate or imply that the wealth was destroyed. If possible, emphasize or keep the focus on the phrase such fabulous wealth.

such fabulous wealth: The word such emphasizes the large amount of the wealth. Other ways to translate this phrase are:

all this wealth (Revised Standard Version)
-or-
So much wealth (Revised English Bible)

has been destroyed: This phrase usually refers to a city or town that is destroyed and left with no people in it. Here the phrase refers to the wealth becoming valueless. All of Babylon’s beautiful things were ruined and destroyed, so they were useless. Other ways to translate this phrase are:

has been brought to ruin (New International Version)
-or-
has been laid waste (Revised Standard Version)
-or-
completely ruined

Paragraph 18:17b–19

18:17b

shipmaster: This phrase refers to the person who controls a ship. He is the leader over the people on it.

passenger: This phrase refers to people who pay for a ship to take them somewhere. For example:

all who travel by ship (New International Version)

sailor: This word refers to people who have jobs on ships while the ships are sailing on the ocean.

18:17c

all who make their living from the sea: The Greek phrase is literally “all who work the sea.” It refers to those whose jobs involve the sea. It includes fishermen and traders who send goods by ship. Other ways to translate this phrase are:

as many as make their living by the sea (New American Standard Bible)
-or-
all those people whose jobs involve the sea

The captains and sailors are already mentioned in 18:17b. So this phrase refers to all of the other people who also make their living on the sea. For example, the Good News Translation says:

all others who earn their living on the sea

sea: The word sea refers to a large body of water. A sea is often so large that someone standing on one side cannot see the other side. Here the word sea refers to seas and oceans in general. See how you translated this word in 5:13 or 13:1.

will stand at a distance: This phrase probably implies that these seafaring people stood far away because they were afraid of what was happening to Babylon (as in 18:10a). For example:

kept a safe distance (New Jerusalem Bible)

© 2020 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.