Revelation 17:1-8 ▼

1 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke to me. |Come,| he said, |I will show you the condemnation and punishment of the great prostitute who sits on many waters,

2 with whom the kings of the earth committed sexual immorality and the earth's inhabitants got drunk with the wine of her immorality.|

3 So he carried me away in the Spirit to a wilderness, and there I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns.

4 Now the woman was dressed in purple and scarlet clothing, and adorned with gold, precious stones, and pearls. She held in her hand a golden cup filled with detestable things and unclean things from her sexual immorality.

5 On her forehead was written a name, a mystery: |Babylon the Great, the Mother of prostitutes and of the detestable things of the earth.|

6 I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints and the blood of those who testified to Jesus. I was greatly astounded when I saw her.

7 But the angel said to me, |Why are you astounded? I will interpret for you the mystery of the woman and of the beast with the seven heads and ten horns that carries her.

8 The beast you saw was, and is not, but is about to come up from the abyss and then go to destruction. The inhabitants of the earth--all those whose names have not been written in the book of life since the foundation of the world--will be astounded when they see that the beast was, and is not, but is to come.