³⁴ When they fall, they shall receive a little help, and many shall join them insincerely.^(A)

¹⁸ For such people do not serve our Lord Christ but their own appetites,^[a] and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the simple-minded.^(A)

A Tree and Its Fruit

¹⁵ “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.^(A)

Testing the Spirits

4 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.^(A)

²⁹ I know that after I have gone, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock.^{(A) 30} Some even from your own group will come distorting the truth in order to entice the disciples to follow them.

The Second Beast

¹¹ Then I saw another beast that rose out of the earth; it had two horns like a lamb, and it spoke like a dragon. ¹² It exercises all the authority of the first beast on its behalf, and it makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose fatal wound^[a] had been healed. ¹³ It performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in the sight of all,^{(A) 14} and by the signs that it is allowed to perform on behalf of the beast it deceives the inhabitants of earth, telling them to make an image for the beast that had been wounded by the sword^[b] and yet lived,^(B)

The Dragon Fights Again on Earth

¹³ So when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued^[a] the woman who had delivered the male child. ¹⁴ But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle, so that she could fly from the serpent into the wilderness, to her place where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time.^{(A) 15} Then from his mouth the serpent poured water like a river after the woman, to sweep her away with the flood.^{(B) 16} But the earth came to the help of the woman; it opened its mouth and swallowed the river that the dragon had poured from his mouth. ¹⁷ Then the dragon was angry with the woman and went off to wage war on the rest of her children, those who keep the commandments of God and hold the testimony of Jesus.^(C)

The First Beast

¹⁸ Then the dragon^[b] took his stand on the sand of the seashore. 13 ¹ And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, and on its horns were ten diadems, and on its heads were blasphemous names.^{(D) 2} And the beast that I saw was like a leopard, its feet were like a bear’s, and its mouth was like a lion’s mouth. And the dragon gave it his power and his throne and great authority.^{(E) 3} One of its heads seemed to have received a death blow, but its fatal wound^[c] had been healed. In amazement the whole earth followed the beast.^{(F) 4} They worshiped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?”^(G)

² She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pangs, in the agony of giving birth.^{(A) 3} Then another portent appeared in heaven: a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns and seven diadems on his heads.^{(B) 4} His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. Then the dragon stood before the woman who was about to deliver a child, so that he might devour her child as soon as it was born.^{(C) 5} And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule^[a] all the nations with a scepter of iron. But her child was snatched away and taken to God and to his throne,^{(D) 6} and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, so that there she can be nourished for one thousand two hundred sixty days.^(E)

²⁰ But I have this against you: you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet and is teaching and beguiling my servants to engage in sexual immorality^[a] and to eat food sacrificed to idols.^(A)