1And I saw a beast come up out of the sea, and it had seven heads and ten horns, and ten crowns upon his horns, and on each head a blasphemous name.
2And the beast I saw was like a leopard, but it had feet like a bear, and a mouth like that of a lion; and the dragon gave the beast his power, his throne, and great authority.
3And one of his heads seemed to have a fatal wound; but that deadly wound had been healed; and all the world wondered and followed after the beast.
4And the people worshipped the dragon that gave power to the beast; and they also worshipped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast? Who would dare wage war with him?”
5And the beast was given a mouth to utter prideful words and blasphemies, and to exercise his authority for forty-two months.
6And it opened its mouth to blaspheme God, to slander His name, His dwelling place, and those that dwell in heaven (Dan.7:25).
7And the beast was given power to wage war against God’s people, and to conquer them, and to have authority over every tribe, and people of all languages and nations (Dan.7:21).
8And all those living on the earth, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb that slain from the foundation of the world, will worship that beast.
9Whoever has ears, let him hear.
10Those that lead into captivity shall go into captivity; he that kills with the sword must be killed with the sword (Gen.9:6). Here is the patience and the faith of the saints. Verse 13:10 seems to have two different renderings: Six translations (KJV, NKJ, D-RB, ERV, WBT, WNT) render it much like this: “10Those that lead into captivity shall go into captivity; he that kills with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.”. That rendering suggests that you reap what you sow (Mt.26:52, Gen.9:6 & Is.33:1). But most (25 out of 31), treat it more as those destined for a given fate, as rendered here in the NLT: “10Anyone who is destined for prison will be taken to prison. Anyone destined to die by the sword will die by the sword. This means that God’s holy people must endure persecution patiently and remain faithful” (Jer.15:2, 43:11).
11Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb, but it spoke like a dragon.
12And it exercised all the authority of the first beast; and required all the earth and its inhabitants to worship the first beast, with the deadly wound that was healed.
13And it performed marvelous signs and wonders, even causing fire to come down from heaven to the earth in full view of the people,
14And with these signs and wonders, it was able to deceive those that dwell on the earth; and it ordered the people to make an image to honor the beast, with the wound by a sword, and recovered.
15And he was allowed to give life and breath to the image of the beast, so that it could speak, and ordered that anyone that would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.
16And it also forced all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand, or on their forehead;
17So that no one could buy or sell unless they had that mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of its name.
18Here is wisdom called for: Let anyone with understanding count (calculate) the number of the beast; for it is the number of a man; and his number is six hundred sixty-six. Easy Reader Bible: Purple Letter Edition © 2023 by Jim Musser. Used by Permission. All rights Reserved. Bible Hub |
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