⁷ Then Herod, when he had secretly called the ^[a]wise men, determined from them what time the ^(A)star appeared.

²¹ So Saul said, “I will give her to him, that she may ^[a]be a snare to him, and that ^(A)the hand of the Philistines may be against him.” Therefore Saul said to David a second time, ^(B)“You shall be my son-in-law today.”

The Woman, the Child, and the Dragon

12 Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars. ² Then being with child, she cried out ^(A)in labor and in pain to give birth.

³ And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, ^(B)a great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. ^4 (C)His tail drew a third ^(D)of the stars of heaven ^(E)and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood ^(F)before the woman who was ready to give birth, ^(G)to devour her Child as soon as it was born. ⁵ She bore a male Child ^(H)who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her Child was ^(I)caught up to God and His throne.

⁵ Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah have plotted evil against you, saying, ⁶ “Let us go up against Judah and ^[a]trouble it, and let us make a gap in its wall for ourselves, and set a king over them, the son of Tabel”— ⁷ thus says the Lord God:

^10 (A)come, let us ^(B)deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and it happen, in the event of war, that they also join our enemies and fight against us, and so go up out of the land.”