³ While people are saying, “Peace and safety,”^(A) destruction will come on them suddenly,^(B) as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.^(C)

²⁶ “Just as it was in the days of Noah,^(A) so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man.

²⁷ People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.

¹⁵ Then from his mouth the serpent^(A) spewed water like a river, to overtake the woman and sweep her away with the torrent.

Babylon, the Prostitute on the Beast

17 One of the seven angels^(A) who had the seven bowls^(B) came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the punishment^(C) of the great prostitute,^(D) who sits by many waters.^{(E) 2} With her the kings of the earth committed adultery, and the inhabitants of the earth were intoxicated with the wine of her adulteries.”^(F)

³ Then the angel carried me away in the Spirit^(G) into a wilderness.^(H) There I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet^(I) beast that was covered with blasphemous names^(J) and had seven heads and ten horns.^{(K) 4} The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and was glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls.^(L) She held a golden cup^(M) in her hand, filled with abominable things and the filth of her adulteries.^{(N) 5} The name written on her forehead was a mystery:^(O)