Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

47 Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon; sit on the ground without a throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called tender and delicate. ² Take the millstones, and grind meal; remove thy veil, strip off the train, uncover the leg, pass through the rivers. ³ Thy nakedness shall be uncovered, yea, thy shame shall be seen: I will take vengeance, and will spare no man. ⁴ Our Redeemer, Jehovah of hosts is his name, the Holy One of Israel. ⁵ Sit thou silent, and get thee into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans; for thou shalt no more be called The mistress of kingdoms. ⁶ I was wroth with my people, I profaned mine inheritance, and gave them into thy hand: thou didst show them no mercy; upon the aged hast thou very heavily laid thy yoke. ⁷ And thou saidst, I shall be mistress for ever; so that thou didst not lay these things to thy heart, neither didst remember the latter end thereof.

⁸ Now therefore hear this, thou that art given to pleasures, that ^[a]sittest securely, that sayest in thy heart, I am, and there is none else besides me; I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children: ⁹ but these two things shall come to thee in a moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood; in their full measure shall they come upon thee, in the multitude of thy sorceries, and the great abundance of thine enchantments.

17 And there came one of the seven angels that had the seven bowls, and spake with me, saying, Come hither, I will show thee the judgment of the great harlot that sitteth upon many waters; ² with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, and they that dwell in the earth were made drunken with the wine of her fornication. ³ And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness: and I saw a woman sitting upon a scarlet-colored beast, ^[a]full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. ⁴ And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and ^[b]decked with gold and precious stone and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations, ^[c]even the unclean things of her fornication, ⁵ and upon her forehead a name written, ^[d]Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of the Harlots and of the Abominations of the Earth. ⁶ And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the ^[e]martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her, I wondered with a great wonder. ⁷ And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou wonder? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and the ten horns. ⁸ The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and is about to come up out of the abyss, ^[f]and to go into perdition. And they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, they whose name hath not been written ^[g]in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast, how that he was, and is not, and ^[h]shall come. ⁹ Here is the ^[i]mind that hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth: ¹⁰ and ^[j]they are seven kings; the five are fallen, the one is, the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a little while. ¹¹ And the beast that was, and is not, is himself also an eighth, and is of the seven; and he goeth into perdition. ¹² And the ten horns that thou sawest are ten kings, who have received no kingdom as yet; but they receive authority as kings, with the beast, for one hour. ¹³ These have one mind, and they give their power and authority unto the beast. ¹⁴ These shall war against the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them, for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings; and they also shall overcome that are with him, called and chosen and faithful. ¹⁵ And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the harlot sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues. ¹⁶ And the ten horns which thou sawest, and the beast, these shall hate the harlot, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and shall burn her utterly with fire. ¹⁷ For God did put in their hearts to do his mind, and to come to one mind, and to give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God should be accomplished. ¹⁸ And the woman whom thou sawest is the great city, which ^[k]reigneth over the kings of the earth.