Triumph of the Elect. ⁹ After this I had a vision of a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue. They stood before the throne and before the Lamb, wearing white robes and holding palm branches^[a] in their hands.

¹⁴ I said to him, “My lord, you are the one who knows.” He said to me, “These are the ones who have survived the time of great distress;^[a] they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.^(A)

¹⁵ It was then permitted to breathe life into the beast’s image, so that the beast’s image could speak and [could] have anyone who did not worship it put to death.^{(A) 16} It forced all the people, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to be given a stamped image on their right hands or their foreheads,^{(B) 17} so that no one could buy or sell except one who had the stamped image of the beast’s name or the number that stood for its name.

^18 [a](C)Wisdom is needed here; one who understands can calculate the number of the beast, for it is a number that stands for a person. His number is six hundred and sixty-six.