The stunned silence from Rome’s musicians at the sight of the burning city (18:22) is broken with the roar of “Hallelujah!” from heaven above (19:1). Hallelujah (transliterated into Greek as hallēlouia or into Latin as alleluia) means “Praise the Lord” in Hebrew and is used four times throughout two separate hymns in 19:1–8. (These hymns, incidentally, later became an inspiration for Handel’s Messiah.) The first hymn is from a vast angelic assembly (19:1–4; cf. 5:11–12) and attributes salvation, glory, and power to God alone (19:2). It lauds God’s judgment over the great whore, insists his ways are always just and true, and affirms his sovereign power by evoking a response of “Amen! Hallelujah” from the twenty-four elders and the four cheru…