Chronological

The woman and the great red snake

12 A very wonderful thing then appeared in the sky. I saw a woman who was wearing the sun like her clothes. The moon was under her feet. A crown of 12 stars was on her head. ² She was pregnant. She screamed with pain as she tried to give birth to her baby.

³ Then another wonderful thing appeared in the sky. It was a very big red dragon. It had seven heads and ten horns. There was a crown on each head. ⁴ Its tail beat away a third of the stars from the sky. It threw them down on the earth. Then the dragon stood in front of the woman who would soon give birth to her baby. He was waiting there to eat her child as soon as he was born. ⁵ The woman gave birth to a son. He was a man who would rule all the nations of the world with strong authority. Then someone quickly took her child away. He went up to God and to his throne. ⁶ The woman ran away into the wilderness. God had prepared a special place to keep her safe there for 1,260 days.

⁷ Then a war started in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. The dragon and his army of angels fought against Michael and his angels.^{[a] 8} But the dragon and his army were not strong enough to win the battle. They no longer had a place for themselves in heaven. ⁹ Michael and his angels threw the great dragon out of heaven. The dragon is called the Devil or Satan. He is the snake who has been there since long ago. He tells lies to deceive the whole world. They threw him down to the earth, together with all his angels. ¹⁰ Then I heard a loud voice in heaven that said:

¹³ The dragon realized that they had thrown him down to the earth. So he chased after the woman who had given birth to the baby boy. He wanted to catch her. ¹⁴ But the woman received the two wings of a very big eagle. Then she could fly to the place in the wilderness that God had prepared for her. In that place God would keep her safe from the big snake. God would take care of her there for a time, times and half a time.^[b]

¹⁵ Then the dragon poured lots of water out of his mouth like a river. He wanted the river of water to carry the woman away. ¹⁶ But a big hole opened in the ground. The river that poured from the dragon's mouth went down into the hole. That helped the woman to escape. ¹⁷ As a result, the dragon was very angry with the woman. So he went away to fight a war against her other descendants. Those are the people who obey God's commands. They continue to trust Jesus and to speak his message.^[c]

¹⁸ After that, the dragon stood on the shore of the sea.

The wild animal from the sea

13 Then I saw a wild animal that was coming up out of the sea.^[d] It had ten horns and there was a crown on each horn. The animal also had seven heads. On each head there was a bad name that insulted God. ² The wild animal that I saw was like a leopard. But its feet were like a bear's feet and its mouth was like a lion's mouth. The dragon gave his own power and great authority to the wild animal so that it could rule as king.

³ Someone had hurt one of the wild animal's heads with a bad wound. It seemed that it would soon die. But the wound in the animal's head had become well again. This surprised all the people who were living on the earth. As a result, they were ready to obey what the wild animal said. ⁴ People worshipped the dragon because he had given his authority to the wild animal. They also worshipped the wild animal. They said, ‘Nobody is like this animal! Nobody is strong enough to fight against him!’

⁵ The wild animal received authority to rule people for 42 months. It could speak proud words and insult God. ⁶ So it started to speak against God. It insulted God's name and the place where he lives, as well as the people who live there in heaven. ⁷ It received power to fight a war against God's own people and to win against them. It received authority to rule over people from every nation, people from every tribe and people from every language. ⁸ Nearly all the people who live on the earth will worship the wild animal. But those people whose names are in the Lamb's book of life will not worship it.^[e] The Lamb wrote the names of these believers in his book from the beginning of the world. He is the Lamb that people killed as a sacrifice.

⁹ Everyone who can understand should listen carefully to these words:

This means that God's people must be patient and strong. They must continue to trust God.^[f]

The wild animal from the land

¹¹ Then I saw a second wild animal. This one was coming up out of the ground.^[g] It had two horns like a lamb's horns. But it spoke like a dragon. ¹² It worked for the first wild animal and it used the authority of the first wild animal. It made all the people on earth worship the first wild animal. That first animal was the one that someone had hurt very much. It seemed that it would soon die but it had become well again.

¹³ The second wild animal did great miracles. It even caused fire to come down from heaven to the earth, while people watched. ¹⁴ It used the authority of the first wild animal to do many miracles. In that way, it deceived the people who lived on the earth. It told them to make an image of the first wild animal. This was the animal that was still alive after a sword had given it a bad wound. ¹⁵ The second wild animal received power to give life to the image of the first wild animal. As a result, the image could speak. It said, ‘Anyone who refuses to worship me must die!’

¹⁶ The second wild animal also caused everyone to receive a mark. Everyone received a mark on their right hand or on the front of their head. This included important people and ordinary people, rich people and poor people, free people and slaves. ¹⁷ Nobody could buy anything unless they had this mark on them. Nor could they sell anything. This mark shows the wild animal's name or the number of its name.

¹⁸ You must think carefully so that you can understand this number. Anyone who is wise should try to understand what the wild animal's number means. It is a human number. The number is 666.

The Lamb and the 144,000 people

14 Then I looked again and I saw the Lamb. He was standing on Mount Zion in Jerusalem. There were 144,000 people there with him. The Lamb's name and his Father's name were written on the front of those people's heads.

² Then I heard a loud sound which came from heaven. The noise was like water that pours along a river very fast. It was like the loud noise of thunder. The sound was like people who were making music with harps. ³ The 144,000 people were singing a new song that they had learned. They sang it in front of the throne. They sang in front of the four beings that are alive and in front of the leaders. Only these 144,000 people could learn the new song. They are the people that God had saved from among the people who lived on the earth.

⁴ These 144,000 people have kept themselves pure. They have not had sex with women in a wrong way. They follow the Lamb everywhere that he goes. God has saved them from among the people of the world and he has paid for their sins. They are the first people to become a gift to God and to the Lamb. ⁵ They have not spoken any lies. They have done nothing wrong.^[h]

The three angels with messages

⁶ Then I saw another angel who was flying high in the sky above me. He brought God's message of good news that is always true. He came to tell this news to everyone who lives on the earth. He would tell it to people from every nation, from every tribe and from every language. ⁷ He said in a loud voice, ‘Respect God and give him honour! Now it is time for him to judge people. He made the sky and the earth and the sea. He also made the springs of water. So worship him!’

⁸ A second angel followed the first one. He said, ‘God has destroyed Babylon! It is no longer a great city! It has caused people everywhere to do the same bad things as it enjoys. She is like a prostitute who makes men become drunk and have sex in a wrong way. She has caused them to turn away from God.’^[i]

⁹ A third angel followed the other two angels. He said in a loud voice, ‘If anyone worships the wild animal and its idol, God will punish them. If anyone receives that animal's mark on their head or on their hand, God will punish them. ¹⁰ God will be very angry with all those people. They will be like people who must drink God's strong wine. When they drink wine from the cup of God's anger, they will have terrible pain. Fire and sulphur will burn them. God's angels and the Lamb will watch while God punishes them. ¹¹ The smoke will rise for ever while they burn. They will have no rest during the day or during the night. This will happen to everyone who worships the wild animal and its image. It will happen to everyone who receives the mark which shows its name.’

¹² This means that God's people must go on being patient and strong. They must continue to obey God's rules. They must continue to trust Jesus.

¹³ Then I heard a voice that spoke from heaven. It said, ‘Write this: From this time, people who continue to believe in the Lord and then they die will be very happy.’ God's Spirit says, ‘Yes, they will rest from their work. God will not forget the good things that they have done.’

The earth's harvest

¹⁴ Then I looked, and I saw a white cloud in front of me. I saw someone who was like a son of man.^[j] He was sitting on the cloud. He had a gold crown on his head and a sharp knife in his hand.^{[k] 15} Then another angel came out from God's house in heaven. He shouted with a loud voice to the person who was sitting on the cloud. He told him, ‘Use your sharp knife and start to work. It is time to bring in the harvest. Cut down the plants and bring them in. The harvest on the earth is now ready.’

¹⁶ Then the person who sat on the cloud moved his sharp knife over the earth. He cut down the earth's plants and he brought in the harvest.^[l]

¹⁷ Then another angel came out from God's house in heaven. He also had a sharp knife in his hand. ¹⁸ Again, another angel came from the altar where people offered gifts to God. This angel had authority for the fire on the altar.^[m] He shouted with a loud voice to the angel who had the sharp knife. He told him, ‘Use your knife and cut the grapes off the earth's vine. The grapes are ready now to make wine.’

¹⁹ So the angel moved his sharp knife over the earth. He cut off the grapes which grew in the earth's vineyard. He threw the grapes into the winepress where God stamps on the grapes because he is very angry. ²⁰ The winepress was outside the city. When God stamped on the grapes, the juice that came out of the winepress was blood.^[n] The river of blood was very deep. It rose as high as horses' necks and it went as far as 300 kilometres.

The seven angels with the last troubles

15 Then I saw another very wonderful thing in the sky.^[o] I saw seven angels with seven terrible troubles to hurt people. They are the final troubles. When they have finished, God will stop being angry.

² Then I saw what seemed to be a glass sea. Fire was mixed in it. I also saw people who were standing at the edge of the glass sea. Those people had fought against the wild animal and they had won. They had won against its image and the number that means its name. They had fought and they had won. God had given them harps. They held the harps to make music. ³ Now they sang the song of God's servant, Moses, and the Lamb's song.^[p] They sang this:

⁵ After this I looked again. I saw that God's house in heaven was open. That house is like God's tent, where he lived among his people in the wilderness.^{[q] 6} The seven angels with the seven terrible troubles then came out of God's house. They were wearing clean, bright clothes that were made from linen. They had gold belts around the top part of their bodies. ⁷ Then one of the four beings that were alive gave seven gold bowls to the seven angels. God had poured his anger into the bowls. He is the God who is alive for ever. ⁸ Then God's house in heaven became full of smoke, which showed God's great glory and his power. As a result, nobody could go into God's house until the angels had finished sending the seven terrible troubles.

The seven bowls with the seven last troubles

16 Then I heard a loud voice speak from God's house in heaven. It said to the seven angels, ‘Take your seven bowls that are full of God's anger. Go and pour them out on the earth.’

² The first angel went and poured out his bowl on the land. As a result, very bad and painful sores appeared on people's skin. Everyone who had the wild animal's mark on them and who worshipped the animal's image had those sores.

³ Then the second angel poured out his bowl on the sea. As a result, the sea became like the blood of a dead person. Everything that was living in the sea then died.

⁴ Then the third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and on the springs of water. As a result, all the water became blood.

⁵ Then I heard the voice of the angel who had authority over the waters. He said to God,

⁷ Then I heard a voice from the altar in heaven. It said,

⁸ Then the fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun. God gave authority to the sun so that it burned people with fire. ⁹ The strong heat burned people and it hurt them very much. As a result, they said bad things against God's name, because he had the power to cause these terrible troubles. But they refused to change how they lived. They refused to agree that God is great.

¹⁰ Then the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the wild animal. As a result, the whole kingdom that the wild animal ruled became dark. People were biting their tongues because of their great pain. ¹¹ They cursed the God of heaven because of their pain and because of the sores on their skin. But they did not stop doing bad things.

¹² Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great Euphrates river. As a result, the river became dry. This prepared a way for kings from the east to march across it. ¹³ Then I saw three bad spirits that looked like frogs. One bad spirit came out of the dragon's mouth.^[r] Another one came out of the first wild animal's mouth. The third one came out of the false prophet's mouth.^{[s] 14} Those bad spirits are the spirits of demons. They had the power to do miracles. They went to all the rulers in the whole world, to bring them together to fight in a big war. That war will happen on the great day of God, who has all power and authority.

¹⁵ The Lord says: ‘Listen! I will come secretly, like someone who robs people. If you continue to watch carefully, you will be happy. Keep your clothes with you all the time. Then, when I come, you will not be ashamed because you have no clothes.’^[t]

¹⁶ Then the bad spirits brought the rulers together to fight in the big war. They came to the place that is called Armageddon in the Hebrew language.

¹⁷ Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air. A voice spoke loudly from the throne in God's house. The voice said, ‘Now it has happened!’ ¹⁸ There was a great storm, with bright lightning and loud noises of thunder. The ground shook with a strong earthquake. The earthquake was stronger than anything that had happened since people first lived on the earth. ¹⁹ As a result, the great city of Babylon broke into three parts. When the ground shook, it also destroyed the big cities of other nations in the world. God did not forget the evil things that the people of the great city of Babylon had done. So they had to drink wine from the cup of God's great anger.

²⁰ When the ground shook, every island in the sea disappeared. There were no more mountains anywhere. ²¹ Strong rain with stones of ice fell from the sky. The stones hit people and caused them great pain. The weight of each stone was about 50 kilograms. The people cursed God because the strong rain and the stones of ice caused them to have such terrible pain.^[u]

The great prostitute

17 One of the seven angels that had the seven bowls came to me. ‘Come with me,’ he said. ‘I will show you how God will punish the great prostitute.^[v] She sits at a place where there are many rivers.^{[w] 2} It is like the kings who rule on the earth have had sex with that bad woman. She has led the people who live on the earth to do bad things. They have become drunk from the strong wine that she has given to them.’^[x]

³ Again, God's Spirit caused me to see and to hear strange things. The angel carried me away to a wilderness. There I saw a woman who was sitting on a wild animal that was bright red. All over this wild animal, names were written that insulted God. The animal had seven heads and ten horns. ⁴ The woman was wearing clothes that were made from expensive cloth. She also wore bright things that made her look beautiful. She shone with gold, valuable stones and pearls. She held a gold cup in her hand. The cup was full of the bad and disgusting things that she had caused people to do. ⁵ A name was written on the front of her head. Only God knows what it means. It was:

Powerful Babylon.

Mother of all prostitutes.

Mother of all the disgusting things on the earth.

⁶ I saw that the woman was like a drunk. She was like someone who had drunk the blood of God's people. She had killed them because they had told other people about Jesus. When I saw her, I was very surprised. ⁷ Then the angel asked me, ‘Why are you surprised? I will explain the secret of the woman to you. I will tell you the secret of the wild animal that she rides. The wild animal that you saw has seven heads and ten horns. ⁸ This animal was once alive, but it is not alive now. Soon it will come up out of the deep hole again but then God will destroy it completely.^[y] All these things will surprise many people who live on the earth. Those are the people whose names are not written in God's book of life from the beginning of the world. They will be surprised to see the animal that was alive at one time. It is not alive now, but it will soon appear again.

⁹ If you are wise, think carefully about this. The animal's seven heads are a picture of seven hills in the place where the woman sits.^{[z] 10} They are also a picture of seven kings. Five of these kings have already stopped ruling. Another king is ruling now. The last king has not yet come. When he does come, he must rule only for a short time. ¹¹ The wild animal is a picture of an eighth king. He was alive once, but he is not alive now. He belongs to the group of seven kings, but God will destroy him completely.

¹² The ten horns that you saw are a picture of ten more kings.^[aa] They have not yet begun to rule anywhere. But they will receive authority to rule as kings for one hour. They will rule people together with the wild animal. ¹³ They all have the same purpose. They will give their power to the wild animal. They will give him authority to rule people. ¹⁴ Together they will fight a war against the Lamb. But the Lamb will win against them. He is the Lord above all lords. He is the King who rules over all kings. And God's people will be with him. They are the people that the Lamb has chosen to belong to him. They are the people who have continued to trust him.’

¹⁵ Then the angel said to me, ‘You saw the many rivers where the prostitute sits. Those rivers are a picture of people from many nations. They are crowds of people from different countries who speak many different languages. ¹⁶ The wild animal and the ten horns that you saw will hate the prostitute. Those rulers will destroy her. They will remove all her clothes. They will eat the meat on her body. Then they will burn her with fire.^{[ab] 17} They will decide to do that because God has given them those thoughts. So, they will do what he wants. They will give to the wild animal their authority to rule as king. The animal will continue to rule until everything happens that God has said will happen. ¹⁸ The bad woman that you saw is a picture of the great city. That city has power over all the kings who rule on the earth.’

The end of Babylon

18 After these things happened, I saw another angel. He was coming down from heaven. He had great authority. He was beautiful and he shone brightly. He gave light to the whole world. ² He shouted with a very loud voice:

⁴ Then I heard another voice which spoke from heaven. It said:

⁹ When all that happens, the kings on the earth will be very sad. They enjoyed the bad things that people did in that city. They had many expensive things so that they were happy. Now they will see the smoke from the fire that burns the city. As a result, they will cry and they will weep. ¹⁰ They will stand a long way from the city because they are afraid. They do not want to suffer in the same way. They will say,

¹¹ The traders of this world will also be very sad. They will weep because nobody will buy their things any more. ¹² They sold many expensive things like these:

¹⁴ The people who sold these things will say to the city, ‘You have now lost all the good things that you wanted so much. You have lost all those expensive things that made you beautiful. You will never have them again.’

¹⁵ The traders had become rich because of the city. But now they will stand a long way from the city because they are afraid. They do not want to suffer in the same way themselves. They will weep and they will be very sad. ¹⁶ They will say,

All the sailors and the people who travel on ships will also be sad. They include every ship's captain, and everyone who works on ships on the sea. They will stand a long way from the city. ¹⁸ They will see the smoke from the fire that burns the city. Then they will shout, ‘There is no other city like this great city!’ ¹⁹ They will throw dirt from the ground on their heads because they are so sad. They will weep and they will shout,

²¹ Then a powerful angel picked up a very big, heavy stone. He threw it into the sea. He said,