What does Revelation 18:5 mean?

When ego-driven sinners tried to build the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11) in order to enhance their reputation, God came down to halt the construction. He confused their language so they could not communicate, and He scattered them far and wide. Similarly, when sinners in the tribulation pile their sins as high as heaven, God will remember their iniquities. The description given in this verse is spoken by a voice from heaven as John listens in.

The era of the Judges revealed how God punishes those who do what is right in their own eyes but what is wrong in His eyes. The book of Judges records the repeated cycle of Israel's downward path to evil and subsequently being subdued by their enemies. When they turned back to the Lord, He delivered them, but eventually they sinned against Him again, and their enemies subdued them. The people of Israel learned the hard way that God does not tolerate sin. Babylon, too, will learn this lesson the hard way.