Beginning

A first monster

13 Then I saw a monster coming up out of the sea. It had ten horns and seven heads. Each of the ten horns was wearing a coronet, and blasphemous names were written on the heads. ² The monster I saw was like a leopard, with bear’s feet and a lion’s mouth. And the dragon gave the monster its power and its throne and great authority. ³ One of the heads appeared to have been slaughtered and killed, but its fatal wound had been healed. The whole earth was awed and astonished by the monster, ⁴ and worshiped the dragon because it had given the monster its authority. They worshiped the monster too. “Who is like the monster?” they were saying. “Who can fight against it?” ⁵ And the monster was given a mouth that speaks great, blasphemous words, and was given authority for forty-two months. ⁶ It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, to curse his name and his dwelling place—that is, those who dwell in heaven. ⁷ It was granted the right to make war against God’s holy people and to defeat them, and it was given authority over every tribe and people and language and nation. ⁸ So everyone who lived on earth worshiped it—everyone, that is, whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life belonging to the slaughtered lamb.

⁹ If anyone has ears, let them hear!

¹⁰ If anyone is to be taken captive, into captivity they will go. If anyone is to be killed with the sword, with the sword they will be killed. This is a summons for God’s holy people to be patient and have faith.

A second monster

¹¹ Then I saw another monster coming up from the earth. It had two horns like those of a lamb, and it spoke like a dragon. ¹² It acts in the presence of the first monster and with its full authority, and it makes the earth and those who live on it worship the first monster, whose fatal wound had been healed. ¹³ It performs great signs, so that it even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of people, ¹⁴ and it deceives the people who live on earth by the signs which it has been allowed to perform in front of the monster, instructing the earth’s inhabitants to make an image of the monster who had the sword-wound but was alive. ¹⁵ It was allowed to give breath to the monster’s image, so that the monster’s image could speak, and it could kill anyone who didn’t worship the monster’s image. ¹⁶ It makes everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slaves, receive a sign from it, marked on their right hands and on their foreheads, ¹⁷ so that nobody can buy or sell unless they have the mark of the name of the monster or the number of its name.

¹⁸ This calls for wisdom. Anyone with a good head on their shoulders should work out the monster’s number, because it’s the number of a human being. Its number is Six Hundred and Sixty-Six.

The lamb’s elite warriors

14 As I watched, there was the lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with him were a hundred and forty-four thousand who had his name, and the name of his father, written on their foreheads. ² I heard a voice from heaven, like the sound of many waters, and like the sound of mighty thunder, and the voice I heard was like harpists playing on their harps. ³ And they are singing a new song before the throne, and before the four creatures and the elders. Nobody can learn that song except for the hundred and forty-four thousand who have been redeemed from the earth. ⁴ These are the ones who have never polluted themselves with women; they are celibate. They follow the lamb wherever he goes. They have been redeemed from the human race as first fruits for God and the lamb, ⁵ and no lie has been found in their mouths. They are without blemish.

A call for endurance

⁶ Then I saw another angel flying in mid-heaven, carrying an eternal gospel to announce to those who live on earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people. ⁷ He spoke with a loud voice, and this is what he said: “Fear God! Give him glory! The time has come for his judgment! Worship the one who made heaven and earth and the sea and the springs of water!”

⁸ He was followed by another angel, and this is what he said: “Babylon the great has fallen! She has fallen! She is the one who made all the nations drink the wine of the anger that comes upon her fornication.”

⁹ They were followed by a third angel, who also spoke in a loud voice: “If anyone worships the monster and its image, or receives its mark on their forehead or their hand, ¹⁰ that person will drink the wine of God’s anger, poured neat into the cup of his anger, and they will be tortured in fire and sulfur before the holy angels and before the lamb. ¹¹ The smoke of their torture goes up forever and ever. Those who worship the monster and its image, and those who receive the mark of its name, will have no respite, day or night.”

¹² This demands patience from God’s holy people, who keep God’s commands and the faith of Jesus.

¹³ Then I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Write this: God’s blessing on the dead who from this time onward die in the Lord.”

“Yes,” says the spirit, “so that they may rest from their works, for the deeds they have done follow after them.”

Reaping the harvest

¹⁴ Then I looked, and there was a white cloud, and sitting on the cloud one like a son of man. He had a gold crown on his head, and a sharp sickle in his hand. ¹⁵ And another angel came out of the temple, shouting in a loud voice to the one who was sitting on the cloud, “It’s harvest time! Put in your sickle and reap: the harvest of the earth is ripe!” ¹⁶ So the one sitting on the cloud applied his sickle to the earth, and reaped the harvest of the earth.

¹⁷ Then another angel came out of the temple in heaven. He, too, had a sharp sickle. ¹⁸ Yet another angel came from the altar; he had authority over fire, and he spoke with a loud voice to the one who had the sharp sickle. “Go to work with your sharp sickle,” he said, “and gather the clusters of fruit from the vine of the earth; the grapes are there in ripe bunches!” ¹⁹ So the angel went to work with his sickle on the earth, and gathered the fruit from the vine of the earth, and threw it into the great winepress of God’s anger. ²⁰ The winepress was trodden outside the city, and blood came out of the winepress, as high as a horse’s bridle, for about two hundred miles.

Preparing the final plagues

15 Then I saw another sign—a great, amazing sight in heaven: seven angels who were bringing the seven last plagues. With them God’s anger is completed. ² And I saw what looked like a sea of glass, mixed with fire. There, by that glassy sea, stood the people who had won the victory over the monster and over its image, and over the number of its name. They were holding harps of God, ³ and they were singing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the lamb. This is how it went:

⁵ After this I looked, and the temple of the “tabernacle of witness” was opened in heaven. ⁶ The seven angels who had the seven plagues came out of the temple, clothed in clean, shining linen, wearing golden belts across their chests. ⁷ Then one of the four living creatures gave the seven angels seven golden bowls filled with the anger of the God who lives forever and ever. ⁸ The temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and his power. Nobody was able to go into the temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels had been completed.

The first four plagues

16 Then I heard a loud voice coming from the temple, addressing the seven angels. “Off you go,” said the voice, “and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of God’s anger.” ² So the first one went off and poured out his bowl on the earth. Foul, painful sores came on the people who had the mark of the monster, and on those who worshiped its image. ³ The second one poured his bowl on the sea, and it turned into blood like that from a corpse. Every living thing in the sea died. ⁴ The third one poured his bowl on the rivers and the springs of water, and they turned into blood. ⁵ Then I heard the angel of the waters saying,

⁷ And I heard the altar respond, “Yes, Lord God Almighty, your judgments are true and just.”

⁸ Then the fourth angel poured his bowl upon the sun, and it was allowed to burn people with its fire. ⁹ People were burned up by its great heat, and they cursed the name of the God who had authority over these plagues. They did not repent or give him glory.

The last three plagues

¹⁰ Then the fifth angel poured his bowl upon the throne of the monster. Its kingdom was plunged into darkness, and people chewed their tongues because of the pain ¹¹ and cursed the God of heaven because of their agonies and their terrible sores. They did not repent of what they had been doing.

¹² Then the sixth angel poured his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up in order to prepare the way for the kings from the rising sun. ¹³ Then I saw three unclean spirits coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the monster, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. They were like frogs. ¹⁴ These are the spirits of demons, who perform signs and go off to the kings of the whole earth, to gather them together for war on the great day of Almighty God. ¹⁵ (Look—I am coming like a thief! God’s blessing on the one who stays awake, and on those who keep their robes about them, so as not to go around naked and have their shame exposed!) ¹⁶ And they gathered the kings together at the place which in Hebrew is called Mount Megiddo.

¹⁷ Then the seventh angel poured his bowl on the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple from the throne. “It is done!” said the voice. ¹⁸ There were lightnings and rumblings, and thunderclaps and a great earthquake, such as there had never been before, no, not such a great earthquake since the time that humans came on the earth. ¹⁹ The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed. Then Babylon the Great was recalled in the presence of God, so that he could give her the cup of the wine of his anger. ²⁰ Every island fled away, and the mountains disappeared. ²¹ Enormous hailstones, each weighing a hundred pounds, fell from the sky on people. They cursed God because of the plague of the hail, because its plague was terrible.