Revelation
The beast and the false prophet
13
1 Then, I saw a beast rising out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on its horns. On each head was a title challenging God. 2 The beast I saw looked like a leopard, with paws like a bear and a mouth like a lion. The dragon passed on his power, his throne and his great authority to the beast. 3 One of its heads seemed to be fatally wounded but this wound healed. The whole earth won dered and they followed the beast. 4 People prostrated themselves before the dragon who had given such authority to the beast and they prostrated themselves before the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast? Who can oppose it?”
4 People prostrated themselves before the dragon who had given such authority to the beast and they prostrated themselves before the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast? Who can oppose it?” 5 The beast was given speech and it spoke boastful and blasphemous words against God; it was allowed to wield its power for forty-two months. 6 It spoke blasphemies against God, his name and his sanctuary, that is, those who already dwell in heaven. 7 It was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them. It was given authority over people of every tribe, language and nation; 8 this is why all the inhabitants of the earth will worship before it, those whose names have not been written in the book of life of the slain Lamb, since the foundation of the world. 9 Let anyone who has ears to hear, listen: 10 If your lot is the prison, to prison you will go; if your lot is to be killed by the sword, by the sword will you be slain. This is, for the holy ones, the time of endurance and faith. 11 Then I saw another beast rise out of the earth, with two horns like the Lamb but speak ing like the dragon. 12 This second beast is totally at the service of the first one and en joys its authority. So it makes the world and its inhabitants worship the first beast whose fatal wound has been healed. 13 It works great wonders, even making fire de scend from heaven to earth, in the sight of all. 14 Through these great wonders which it is able to do on behalf of the beast, it deceives the inhabitants of the earth, persuading them to make a statue of the beast which, although wounded by the sword, is still alive. 15 It has been allowed to give a spirit to this statue; the statue of the beast speaks and those who refuse to worship it are killed. 16 So this second beast makes everyone – great and small, rich and poor, free and en slaved – be branded on the right hand or on the fore head, 17 and no one can buy or sell unless he has been branded with the name of the beast or with the number of its name. 18 Let us see who is wise! If you are clever, you can interpret the number of the Beast; it is