¹⁶ It also forced all people, great and small,^(A) rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads,^{(B) 17} so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark,^(C) which is the name of the beast or the number of its name.^(D)

¹⁸ This calls for wisdom.^(E) Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man.^[a](F) That number is 666.

³ Then the angel carried me away in the Spirit^(A) into a wilderness.^(B) There I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet^(C) beast that was covered with blasphemous names^(D) and had seven heads and ten horns.^(E)

⁷ Then the angel said to me: “Why are you astonished? I will explain to you the mystery^(A) of the woman and of the beast she rides, which has the seven heads and ten horns.^{(B) 8} The beast, which you saw, once was, now is not, and yet will come up out of the Abyss^(C) and go to its destruction.^(D) The inhabitants of the earth^(E) whose names have not been written in the book of life^(F) from the creation of the world will be astonished^(G) when they see the beast, because it once was, now is not, and yet will come.

¹¹ The beast who once was, and now is not,^(A) is an eighth king. He belongs to the seven and is going to his destruction.

²⁰ But the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet^(A) who had performed the signs^(B) on its behalf.^(C) With these signs he had deluded^(D) those who had received the mark of the beast^(E) and worshiped its image.^(F) The two of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake^(G) of burning sulfur.^(H)