^4 [a]Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that ^(A)friendship with the world is enmity with God? ^(B)Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

³⁹ And you shall have the tassel, that you may look upon it and ^(A)remember all the commandments of the Lord and do them, and that you ^(B)may not ^(C)follow the harlotry to which your own heart and your own eyes are inclined,

¹⁵ lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they ^(A)play the harlot with their gods and make sacrifice to their gods, and one of them ^(B)invites you and you ^(C)eat of his sacrifice,

The Scarlet Woman and the Scarlet Beast

17 Then ^(A)one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and talked with me, saying ^[a]to me, “Come, ^(B)I will show you the judgment of ^(C)the great harlot ^(D)who sits on many waters, ^2 (E)with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, and ^(F)the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication.”

³ So he carried me away in the Spirit ^(G)into the wilderness. And I saw a woman sitting ^(H)on a scarlet beast which was full of ^(I)names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. ⁴ The woman ^(J)was arrayed in purple and scarlet, ^(K)and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, ^(L)having in her hand a golden cup ^(M)full of abominations and the filthiness of ^[b]her fornication. ⁵ And on her forehead a name was written:

^(N)MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT,
THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS
AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS
OF THE EARTH.

¹⁷ And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near.

¹³ But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

^7 (A)Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying: