Revelation 12–13

The Woman and the Dragon

12A great sign^r appeared in heaven:^s a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars^t on her head. ²She was pregnant and cried out in pain^u as she was about to give birth. ³Then another sign appeared in heaven:^v an enormous red dragon^w with seven heads^x and ten horns^y and seven crowns^z on its heads. ⁴Its tail swept a third^a of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth.^b The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child^c the moment he was born. ⁵She gave birth to a son, a male child, who “will rule all the nations with an iron scepter.”^ad And her child was snatched up^e to God and to his throne. ⁶The woman fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days.^f

⁷Then war broke out in heaven. Michael^g and his angels fought against the dragon,^h and the dragon and his angelsⁱ fought back. ⁸But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. ⁹The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent^j called the devil,^k or Satan,^l who leads the whole world astray.^m He was hurled to the earth,ⁿ and his angels with him.

¹⁰Then I heard a loud voice in heaven^o say:

“Now have come the salvation^p and the power

and the kingdom of our God,

and the authority of his Messiah.

For the accuser of our brothers and sisters,^q

who accuses them before our God day and night,

has been hurled down.

¹¹They triumphed over^r him

by the blood of the Lamb^s

and by the word of their testimony;^t

they did not love their lives so much

as to shrink from death.^u

¹²Therefore rejoice, you heavens^v

and you who dwell in them!

But woe^w to the earth and the sea,^x

because the devil has gone down to you!

He is filled with fury,

because he knows that his time is short.”

¹³When the dragon^y saw that he had been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child.^{z 14}The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle,^a so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the wilderness, where she would be taken care of for a time, times and half a time,^b out of the serpent’s reach. ¹⁵Then from his mouth the serpent^c spewed water like a river, to overtake the woman and sweep her away with the torrent. ¹⁶But the earth helped the woman by opening its mouth and swallowing the river that the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. ¹⁷Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to wage war^d against the rest of her offspring^e—those who keep God’s commands^f and hold fast their testimony about Jesus.^g

The Beast out of the Sea

13The dragon^a stood on the shore of the sea. And I saw a beast coming out of the sea.^h It had ten horns and seven heads,ⁱ with ten crowns on its horns, and on each head a blasphemous name.^{j 2}The beast I saw resembled a leopard,^k but had feet like those of a bear^l and a mouth like that of a lion.^m The dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority.^{n 3}One of the heads of the beast seemed to have had a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed.^o The whole world was filled with wonder^p and followed the beast. ⁴People worshiped the dragon because he had given authority to the beast, and they also worshiped the beast and asked, “Who is like^q the beast? Who can wage war against it?”

⁵The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies^r and to exercise its authority for forty-two months.^{s 6}It opened its mouth to blaspheme God, and to slander his name and his dwelling place and those who live in heaven.^{t 7}It was given power to wage war^u against God’s holy people and to conquer them. And it was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation.^{v 8}All inhabitants of the earth^w will worship the beast—all whose names have not been written in the Lamb’s book of life,^x the Lamb^y who was slain from the creation of the world.^bz

⁹Whoever has ears, let them hear.^a

¹⁰“If anyone is to go into captivity,

into captivity they will go.

If anyone is to be killed^c with the sword,

with the sword they will be killed.”^db

This calls for patient endurance and faithfulness^c on the part of God’s people.^d

The Beast out of the Earth

¹¹Then I saw a second beast, coming out of the earth.^e It had two horns like a lamb, but it spoke like a dragon.^{f 12}It exercised all the authority^g of the first beast on its behalf,^h and made the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast,ⁱ whose fatal wound had been healed.^{j 13}And it performed great signs,^k even causing fire to come down from heaven^l to the earth in full view of the people. ¹⁴Because of the signs^m it was given power to perform on behalf of the first beast, it deceivedⁿ the inhabitants of the earth.^o It ordered them to set up an image in honor of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived.^{p 15}The second beast was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship^q the image to be killed.^{r 16}It also forced all people, great and small,^s rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads,^{t 17}so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark,^u which is the name of the beast or the number of its name.^v

¹⁸This calls for wisdom.^w Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man.^ex That number is 666.