⁸ Then another angel, a second, followed, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her prostitution.”^(A)

⁴ The woman was clothed in purple and scarlet and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her prostitution,^(A)

² with whom the kings of the earth have engaged in sexual immorality^[a] and with the wine of whose prostitution the inhabitants of the earth have become drunk.”^(A)

The Golden Image

3 King Nebuchadnezzar made a golden statue whose height was sixty cubits and whose width was six cubits; he set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon.^{(A) 2} Then King Nebuchadnezzar sent for the satraps, the prefects, and the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the justices, the magistrates, and all the officials of the provinces to assemble and come to the dedication of the statue that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.^{(B) 3} So the satraps, the prefects, and the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the justices, the magistrates, and all the officials of the provinces assembled for the dedication of the statue that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. When they were standing before the statue that Nebuchadnezzar had set up, ⁴ the herald proclaimed aloud, “You are commanded, O peoples, nations, and languages,^{(C) 5} that when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, drum, and entire musical ensemble, you are to fall down and worship the golden statue that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up.^{(D) 6} Whoever does not fall down and worship shall immediately be thrown into a furnace of blazing fire.”^{(E) 7} Therefore, as soon as all the peoples heard the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, drum,^[a] and entire musical ensemble, all the peoples, nations, and languages fell down and worshiped the golden statue that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.^(F)