⁵ and on her forehead was written a name, a mystery: “Babylon the great, mother^[a] of whores^[b] and of earth’s abominations.”^(A)

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)

² He called out with a mighty voice,

⁷ But the angel said to me, “Why are you so amazed? I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast with seven heads and ten horns that carries her.

¹⁹ The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. God remembered great Babylon and gave her the wine cup of the fury of his wrath.^(A)

Godlessness in the Last Days

3 You must understand this, that in the last days distressing times will come. ² For people will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,^{(A) 3} unfeeling, implacable, slanderers, profligates, brutes, haters of good,^{(B) 4} treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,^{(C) 5} holding to the outward form of godliness but denying its power. Avoid them!

⁷ For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work, but only until the one who now restrains it is removed.^(A)

⁹ And the kings of the earth, who engaged in sexual immorality^[a] and lived in luxury with her, will weep and wail over her when they see the smoke of her burning;^{(A) 10} they will stand far off, in fear of her torment, and say,