⁵ The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world.^{(A) 6} And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me,^(B) and I can give it to anyone I want to. ⁷ If you worship me, it will all be yours.”

¹⁰ The third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky^(A) on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water^(B)—

¹¹ the name of the star is Wormwood.^[a] A third^(A) of the waters turned bitter, and many people died from the waters that had become bitter.^(B)

⁷ It was given power to wage war^(A) against God’s holy people and to conquer them. And it was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation.^(B)

⁸ All inhabitants of the earth^(A) will worship the beast—all whose names have not been written in the Lamb’s book of life,^(B) the Lamb^(C) who was slain from the creation of the world.^[a](D)

¹² It exercised all the authority^(A) of the first beast on its behalf,^(B) and made the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast,^(C) whose fatal wound had been healed.^(D)

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.”^(A)

⁶ I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of God’s holy people,^(A) the blood of those who bore testimony to Jesus.

When I saw her, I was greatly astonished.