Revelation 12

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