¹¹ The entire vision will be to you like the words of a sealed ^[a](E)book, which, when they give it to the one who ^[b]is literate, saying, “Please read this,” he will say, “I cannot, because it is sealed.” ¹² Then the ^[c]book will be given to the one who ^[d]is illiterate, saying, “Please read this.” And he will say, “I ^[e]cannot read.”

¹³ Then the Lord said,

Captivity Threatened

¹² “Therefore you are to speak this word to them. ‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel says: “Every jug is to be filled with wine.”’ And when they say to you, ‘Do we not very well know that every jug is to be filled with wine?’ ¹³ then say to them, ‘This is what the Lord says: “Behold, I am going to fill all the inhabitants of this land—the kings who sit for David on his throne, the priests, the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem—with ^(A)drunkenness! ¹⁴ Then I will ^(B)smash them against each other, both the ^(C)fathers and the sons together,” declares the Lord. “I will ^(D)not have compassion nor be troubled nor take pity so as to keep from destroying them.”’”

⁴⁸ But if that evil slave says in his heart, ‘My ^[a]master ^[b]is not coming for a long time,’ ⁴⁹ and he begins to beat his fellow slaves, and he eats and drinks with those habitually drunk; ⁵⁰ then the ^[c]master of that slave will come on a day that he does not expect, and at an hour that he does not know, ⁵¹ and he will ^[d]cut him in two and assign ^[e]him a place with the hypocrites; in that place there will be ^(A)weeping and gnashing of teeth.

The Doom of Babylon

17 ^(A)Then one of the ^(B)seven angels who had the ^(C)seven bowls came and spoke with me, saying, “Come here, I will show you ^(D)the judgment of the ^(E)great prostitute who ^(F)sits on many waters, ² with whom ^(G)the kings of the earth committed acts of sexual immorality, and ^(H)those who live on the earth ^(I)became drunk with the wine of her sexual immorality.”

² And he cried out with a mighty voice, saying, “^[a](A)Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She ^(B)has become a dwelling place of demons and a ^[b]prison of every ^(C)unclean spirit, and a ^[c]prison of every unclean and hateful bird. ³ For all the nations have fallen because of the ^(D)wine of the passion of her sexual immorality, and ^(E)the kings of the earth have committed acts of sexual immorality with her, and the ^(F)merchants of the earth have become rich from the ^[d]excessive wealth of her ^[e](G)luxury.”