Historical

12 I saw a wonderful thing in the sky. A woman was wearing the sun like a dress. She stood on the moon. On her head she had twelve stars in a big ring like a crown. She was going to have a baby.

² She cried out in pain because it was time for the baby to be born.

³ And another wonderful thing was seen in the sky. It was a big red dragon. He had seven heads and ten horns. He had seven big rings on his heads.

⁴ His tail struck a third part of the stars from the sky to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who would soon have a baby. He wanted to eat her baby when it was born.

⁵ Then her baby boy was born. He will rule all the countries with an iron stick. Her child was taken up to God, to God's throne.

⁶ The woman ran away into the wilderness. There God had made a place ready for her. There she will have food for forty-two months.

⁷ Then there was fighting in heaven. Michael and his angels fought with the dragon. The dragon and his angels fought back.

⁸ But they did not win the fight and no longer were they allowed to stay in heaven.

⁹ The dragon was thrown down. He was that old snake who is called the devil and Satan. He fools all the people in the world. He was thrown down to earth and his angels were thrown down with him.

¹⁰ I heard a loud voice in the sky. It said, `Now the time has come for God to save people. He will use his strength. His kingdom will come and his Christ will use his power. The one who says bad things about our brothers to God day and night has been thrown down.

¹¹ They have won the fight against him by the blood of the Lamb's death, and by what they said. They did not try to save their lives, but were willing to die.

¹² Heaven, and those who live in heaven, be glad because of it! Big trouble will come to the earth and sea! The devil has come down to you. He is very angry. He knows that he has only a short time!'

¹³ And when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to earth, he troubled the woman to whom a baby boy had been born.

¹⁴ But the woman was given two wings like a big eagle's wings. With them she could fly away from the dragon into the wilderness to her place where she would have food for three and a half periods of time.

¹⁵ The dragon poured water like a river out of his mouth after her. He wanted the water to carry her away.

¹⁶ But the earth helped the woman. It opened a big hole. And the river which the dragon had poured out of his mouth went down the hole.

¹⁷ Then the dragon was very angry with the woman. He went away to fight against the other children of the woman. They are the ones who keep the laws of God and tell the truth about Jesus.

13 Then I stood on the sand by the sea. I saw a wild animal come up out of the sea. The beast had seven heads and ten horns. On its horns were ten big crowns. On its heads it had names that did not respect God.

² The beast I saw was like a leopard. It had feet like a bear and a mouth like a lion. The dragon gave it his own strength, his own throne, and great power.

³ One of its heads had a cut, bad enough to kill it. But the bad cut was healed. All the people on earth were much surprised and followed the beast.

⁴ They worshipped the dragon because he had given this power to the beast. And they worshipped the beast too. They said, `Who is like this beast? Who can fight against it?'

⁵ The beast was given a mouth that spoke proud words against God. It was given power to rule for forty-two months.

⁶ It opened its mouth to speak against God, to speak against his name and the place where he lives, and to speak against those who live in heaven.

⁷ It was also given power to fight against God's people and to win the fight against them. It was given power to rule over every tribe, nation, language, and country.

⁸ Everyone on earth will worship the beast, if they do not have their names in the book of life. The book of life belongs to the Lamb who was killed. That was God's plan since the world was made.

⁹ He who can hear should listen:

¹⁰ Anyone who puts people in prison will go to prison. Any one who kills others with a long knife or sword will be killed by a long knife or sword. This is why God's people are patient and keep on believing.

¹¹ Then I saw another beast come up out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb but talked like a dragon.

¹² It uses all the power of the first beast and stands with it. It makes all the earth and those who live on it worship the first beast. That was the beast whose bad cut was healed.

¹³ The second beast does wonderful things. It even makes fire fall from the sky to the earth for everyone to see.

¹⁴ It fools the people who live on earth by the wonderful things which it has been given power to do, while the first beast looks on. It tells the people on earth to make an idol like the first beast that was cut by the big knife but lived.

¹⁵ It was given power to make the idol of the beast live. The idol of the beast could speak and command all those who would not worship the idol to be killed.

¹⁶ It makes all the people take a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads. That means all people, those who are great and those who are not great, the poor, free men, and slaves.

¹⁷ No one could buy or sell anything if he did not have this mark. This mark is the name of the beast or the number of its name.

¹⁸ Here wisdom is needed. If a person understands, he should count the number of the beast. It is the number of a man's name. Its number is six hundred and sixty-six.

The song of the 144,000

14  Then I looked and saw the Lamb standing on a hill called Zion. With him were one hundred and forty-four thousand people. They had his name and the name of his Father written on their foreheads.

² I heard a sound from the sky like the sound of much water flowing, and like the sound of much thunder. The sound I heard was like people playing music on their harps.

³ They were singing a new song in front of God's chief chair, in front of the four living beings and the leaders. No one could learn that song but the one hundred and forty-four thousand people. They have been bought from the earth.

⁴ They are the people who have not had sex with women. They are clean. They are the people who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They lived among people on earth. They have been bought from the earth. They are the first among men to have been bought for God and the Lamb.

⁵ They never told lies. They are found to be without any wrong ways as they stand before the throne of God.

⁶ Then I saw another angel flying across the sky. He had good news that will last for ever to tell the people who live on the earth. The good news is for every country, tribe, language, and nation.

⁷ He said in a loud voice, `Respect and honour God and give him glory! The time has come for him to judge people, to tell them how good or bad they are. Worship him. He made heaven and earth, the sea, and the rivers.'

⁸ A second angel followed him. He said, `The great city of Babylon has fallen down. It has fallen down because it filled all the countries with its wrong ways. It has made people to suffer God's anger.'

^9-10 A third angel followed the other two. He said in a loud voice, `Any person who worships the beast or its idol, and takes its mark on his forehead or on his hand, will also feel God's anger. He is very angry. That person will be burned with fire and dust that chokes people when it burns. He will be burned in front of the holy angels and the Lamb.

¹¹ The smoke of that fire goes up for ever and ever. Those who worship the animal and its idol, and anyone who takes the mark of its name, will get no rest day or night.'

¹² This is why God's people must be patient. They are the ones who keep the laws of God and believe in Jesus.

¹³ I heard a voice from the sky. It said, `Write this: From now on, happy are those who die believing in the Lord.' `Yes,' says the Spirit. `They will have rest from their troubles. The good things they have done will go with them.'

¹⁴ I looked and saw a white cloud. I saw someone like the Son of Man sitting on the cloud. He had a big gold crown on his head and a sharp harvest knife in his hand.

¹⁵ Another angel came out of God's temple. He called in a loud voice to the one who was sitting on the cloud. He said, `Take your knife and cut the harvest. The time has come to take in the harvest because the earth is ready.'

¹⁶ So the one who sat on the cloud used his knife on earth. And the harvest on earth was cut.

¹⁷ Then another angel came out of the temple in heaven. He also had a sharp knife.

¹⁸ And another angel came from the altar. He had power over fire. He called in a loud voice to the angel who had the sharp knife. He said, `Take your sharp knife and gather the fruit that grows on the vine on the earth. Its fruit is ripe.'

¹⁹ So the angel used his knife on earth. He gathered the fruit of the vine on the earth. He put it in the big place where the water of the fruit is pressed out. This place is God's anger.

²⁰ It was outside the city that they pressed the fruit. Blood ran out of the place. It came up as high as the horses' heads for about two hundred miles.

15 I saw another big and wonderful thing in the sky. I saw seven angels who carried the seven big troubles. They are the last troubles. When these troubles have come, God's anger is ended. 2I saw something that looked like a sea of glass mixed with fire. And I saw those people who had won the fight against the beast, and its idol, and its mark, and the number of its name. They were standing on the sea of glass and they had the harps of God in their hands.

² They sing the song of Moses who is the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb. They say, `Lord God who has all power, the things you do are great and wonderful! King for ever, your ways are right and true!

³ Who will not respect and honour you and praise your name, Lord? You are the only one who is holy. People from all countries will come and worship you because they have seen that you are right and fair.'

⁴ After this I looked. The temple in heaven was open. It was the place where God's agreement was kept.

⁵ The seven angels who carried the seven troubles came out of the temple. They were wearing linen clothes, clean and shining. Around their chests they wore gold belts.

⁶ One of the four living beings gave the angels seven gold bowls. The bowls were full of the anger of God who lives for ever and ever.

⁷ The temple was full of smoke because God is so great and has so much power. No one could go into the temple until the seven troubles, which the seven angels had, were ended.

16 I heard a loud voice coming from the temple. It said to the seven angels, `Go and pour the seven bowls of God's anger on the earth.'

² So the first angel went and poured his bowl on the earth. Then a bad, dirty sore came on the people who had the mark of the animal on them, and who worshipped its idol.

³ The second angel poured his bowl on the sea. It turned into blood like that of a person who has been killed. Everything in the sea that had life died.

⁴ The third angel poured his bowl on the rivers and the places where there was water. They turned into blood.

⁵ And I heard the angel of the water say, `Holy One, you who live now and who always have lived, and will live for ever; you are right because you have punished them this way.

⁶ They killed God's people and the prophets. Now you have given them blood to drink. This is what they should get!'

⁷ I heard the people under the altar say, `Yes, Lord God, you have all power! The way you punish is true and right!'

⁸ The fourth angel poured his bowl on the sun. Then the sun was given the power to burn people with fire.

⁹ People were burned because the sun was so hot. And they spoke wrongly about the name of God, cursing him because he had the power to send these troubles. But they would not stop the wrong things they were doing. They would not respect and honour God.

¹⁰ The fifth angel poured his bowl on the throne of the beast. The place where he ruled became dark. People bit their tongues because of the pain they had.

¹¹ They cursed God in heaven because of their pain and sores. But they did not stop the wrong things they were doing. They would not turn back to God.

¹² The sixth angel poured his bowl on the big river Euphrates. Its water dried up so that a road was made ready for the kings to come from the east.

¹³ I saw three bad spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the prophet who is not true.

¹⁴ They are the spirits of gods who are not true, and they do wonderful things. They go to the kings of the whole world and gather them to fight on the great day of God who has all power. (

¹⁵ `Look! I will come like a thief. The person who stays awake and dressed will be glad he did! He will not be without clothes and he will not be ashamed.')

¹⁶ They gathered at the place called Armageddon in the Hebrew language.

¹⁷ Then the seventh angel poured his bowl into the air. A loud voice came from the temple and the chair. It said, `It is finished!'

¹⁸ There were lightning's, loud noises, and thunder. The earth shook very much. It shook more than it had ever shaken since people have been on earth.

¹⁹ The big city was broken into three parts. And the cities of the nations fell down. God remembered Babylon, the big city. He made it feel all of his great anger.

²⁰ The islands all went away, and the mountains could not be seen.

²¹ Rain like big stones fell from the sky on men. Each stone weighed about a hundred pounds. Men cursed God because the big rain of stones fell on them. The trouble was very bad.

17 One of the seven angels who had carried the seven bowls came and talked to me. He said, `Come, and I will show you the woman who has given herself over to wrong ways of using sex. She is sitting over many waters. I will show you how she will be punished.

² The kings on earth have been with her and copied her. And the people on earth gladly copy her wrong ways.'

³ Then the angel took me away in the Spirit to a wilderness. There I saw a woman sitting on a red beast that had names against God written all over it. It had seven heads and ten horns.

⁴ The woman was wearing blue and red clothes. She was shining with gold, fine stones, and pearls. In her hand she held a gold cup. It was full of the wrong things she did and of her dirty ways of using sex.

⁵ A name was written on her forehead. It has a secret meaning. The name is Great Babylon, the mother of all people who give their bodies for wrong ways of using sex. The mother of all things done on earth too bad to talk about.

⁶ And I saw the woman was drunk because of the blood she drank. It was the blood of God's people, and the blood of people who had been killed because they belonged to Jesus. When I saw her, I was very much surprised.

⁷ The angel asked me, `Why are you surprised? I will tell you the secret meaning of the woman and the beast with seven heads and horns that carries her.

⁸ `The beast that you saw was alive at one time, then it was dead. It will come up from the big hole that has no bottom and it will be killed. The people on earth will be surprised when they see the beast, because it was alive and then it was dead, and it comes alive again. These are the people who do not have their names written in the book of life from the time the world was made.

⁹ `To understand this, one must be wise. The seven heads are the seven hills on which the woman is sitting.

¹⁰ They are also seven kings. Five have already lost their power. One is ruling now, and the other one has not yet come. When he comes he will rule for a short time.

¹¹ The beast that was alive at the one time, and then was dead, is the eighth king. He is really one of the seven. He will be killed.

¹² The ten horns that you saw are ten kings who have not yet ruled. They will have power for one hour to rule with the animal.

¹³ These ten all think the same way, and they give to the beast their power and right to rule.

¹⁴ They will fight against the Lamb, but the Lamb will win the fight against them. He will win because he is Lord of lords and King of kings. `Those who are with the Lamb will also win. God has called them and chosen them, and they believe in him.'

¹⁵ And the angel said to me, `You saw the water on which the bad woman is sitting. The water is the many nations, many people, many countries, and many languages.

¹⁶ You saw the ten horns and the animal. They will hate the bad woman. They will take away everything she has and her fine clothes. They will eat her body and burn her up in a fire.

¹⁷ God has put it into their hearts to do what he wants done to her. They will all agree. They will give to the beast their power to rule until what God has said comes true.

¹⁸ `The woman whom you saw is the big city that rules over the kings on earth.'

18 After that I saw another angel coming down from the sky. He had much power. The bright light that shone from him lit up the earth.

² He called in a loud voice and said, `The big city of Babylon has fallen down! It has fallen down! Bad spirits live in it. All bad spirits hide there. And all kinds of dirty birds that people hate hide there.

³ All the nations are broken down because they are full of its wrong ways. The kings of the earth have joined with it. The traders of the earth have become rich because of its wrong ways.'

⁴ Then I heard another voice from the sky that said, `Come out of it, my people, so that you will have no part in the wrong things it does. Come out of it so that you will not have the big troubles it will have.

⁵ Its wrong ways are piled as high as the sky and God has remembered the wrong things it has done.

⁶ Do to it what it did to you. Yes, do two times as much to it as it did to you! From the cup it gave you to drink, give it two times as much to drink as it gave to you.

⁷ It is proud of itself and has done wrong things. Give it that much trouble and crying. It says in its heart, "I am like a queen. I am not like a woman who has lost her husband. I will never know sorrow."

⁸ So then, its big troubles will come in one day. Those troubles are death, crying, hunger, and being burned in a fire. The Lord who has punished it is strong.'

⁹ `And the kings of the earth were joined with it in its wrong ways. They will cry and be sad about it when they see the smoke while it burns.

¹⁰ They will stand far away from it because they are afraid of the trouble it is having. They will say, "Trouble! Trouble! You big, strong city Babylon! In one hour your punishment has come!"

¹¹ `And the traders of the earth will cry and be sad about it, because no one buys the things they bring to sell.

¹² They have many things to sell: gold, silver, fine stones, and pearls. They have linen clothes and blue cloth, silk cloth and red cloth. They have all kinds of sweet smelling wood. They have all kinds of things made of ivory. They have all kinds of things made of wood that costs much money, of brass, of iron, and of a stone called marble.

¹³ They have spices and perfume. They have incense and a sweet-smelling oil. They have frankincense and wine and oil. They have fine flour and wheat. They have cows, sheep, horses, and wagons. They have slaves and people to sell.

¹⁴ The things that your heart wanted are gone from you. All your fine food and clothes are gone from you. You will never find them again.

¹⁵ The traders will sell these things and got much money from the city. They will stand far away from it because they are afraid of the trouble it is having. They will cry and be sad about it.

¹⁶ They will say "How terrible for you, you big strong city! You were wearing linen clothes and purple and red clothes. You were shining with gold, fine stones, and pearls.

¹⁷ In one hour all your great riches are lost." `And all the captains of the boats and all the seamen, the sailors, and all that do business on the sea stood away from it.

¹⁸ They called out loud when they saw the smoke while it burned. They said, "What city is like that big city?"

¹⁹ They threw dust on their heads and they called out loud. They cried and were sad. They said, "How terrible for that big city! All the men who had boats on the sea became rich because it was rich. In one hour it is all lost."

²⁰ `Be glad for what has happened to it, all you who are in heaven, God's people, apostles and prophets. God has punished it for what it did to you!'

²¹ Then a strong angel took up a very heavy stone and threw it into the sea. He said, `So hard will Babylon the big city be thrown down. It will not be seen again.

²² People will not hear music in you again. No harps, no singing, no pipes or horns will ever be heard in you again. No one will make things in you again. The noise of people grinding grain will not be heard in you again.

²³ No lamp will shine in you again. No one will hear the voice of people being married. Your traders were the big people of the world. All the countries were fooled by your witch doctors.

²⁴ The blood of prophets and of God's people and of all who have been killed on earth was found in that city.'