771. 18:11 "And the merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her, because no one buys their merchandise anymore." This symbolizes the lower in rank who serve and profit by that religion's sanctities - here their feelings of anguish that after Babylon's destruction their religious tenets are not acknowledged as sacred, but as adulterated and profaned goods and truths of the Word and so of the church, so that they cannot use them to make material gains as before.

The merchants mean the lower in rank in their Roman Catholic Church's hierarchy, because the kings of the earth, the subject before this, mean those higher in that order, as may be seen in no. 767 above. Thus the merchants of the earth mean those who serve and profit by that religion's sanctities. That they will weep and mourn symbolizes their feelings of anguish, as also in no. 767 above. Their merchandise symbolizes the sanctities or religious tenets by which they profit or make material gains. No one's buying these anymore symbolizes people's not wanting to have them, because they are not sacred, but are adulterated and profaned goods and truths of the Word and so of the church. To buy is to acquire for oneself (no. 606).

Regarding this we find in Jeremiah:

(O Babylon,) you who dwell by many waters, abundant in treasures, your end has come, the measure of your material gain. (Jeremiah 51:13)