¹¹ Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb, but it spoke like a dragon. ¹² This beast stands before the first beast and uses the same power the first beast has. By this power it makes everyone living on earth worship the first beast, who had the death wound that was healed. ¹³ And the second beast does great miracles so that it even makes fire come down from heaven to earth while people are watching. ¹⁴ It fools those who live on earth by the miracles it has been given the power to do. It does these miracles to serve the first beast. The second beast orders people to make an idol to honor the first beast, the one that was wounded by the deadly sword but sprang to life again. ¹⁵ The second beast was given power to give life to the idol of the first one so that the idol could speak. And the second beast was given power to command all who will not worship the image of the beast to be killed.

The Gold Idol and Blazing Furnace

3 King Nebuchadnezzar made a gold statue ninety feet high and nine feet wide and set it up on the plain of Dura in the area of Babylon. ² Then he called for the leaders: the governors, assistant governors, captains of the soldiers, people who advised the king, keepers of the treasury, judges, rulers, and all other officers in his kingdom. He wanted them to come to the special service for the statue he had set up. ³ So they all came for the special service and stood in front of the statue that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. ⁴ Then the man who made announcements for the king said in a loud voice, “People, nations, and those of every language, this is what you are commanded to do: ⁵ When you hear the sound of the horns, flutes, lyres, zithers,^[a] harps, pipes, and all the other musical instruments, you must bow down and worship the gold statue that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up. ⁶ Anyone who doesn’t bow down and worship will immediately be thrown into a blazing furnace.”