The Woman and the Dragon
12 A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. 2 She was with child and cried out in labor and in pain to give birth. 3 Then another sign appeared in heaven: There was a great red dragon with seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. 4 His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven, and threw them to the earth. The dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her Child as soon as He was born. 5 She gave birth to a male Child, “who was to rule all nations with an iron scepter.” And her Child was caught up to God and to His throne. 6 The woman fled into the wilderness where she has a place prepared by God, that they may nourish her there for one thousand two hundred and sixty days.
7 Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought, 8 but they did not prevail, nor was there a place for them in heaven any longer. 9 The great dragon was cast out, that ancient serpent called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world. He was cast down to the earth, and his angels were cast down with him.
10 Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying:
“Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God
and the authority of His Christ have come,
for the accuser of our brothers,
who accused them before our God day and night,
has been cast down.
11 They overcame him
by the blood of the Lamb
and by the word of their testimony,
and they loved not their lives
unto the death.
12 Therefore rejoice, O heavens,
and you who dwell in them!
Woe unto the inhabitants of the earth and the sea!
For the devil has come down to you in great wrath,
because he knows that his time is short.”
13 When the dragon saw that he was cast down to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male Child. 14 The woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is to be nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent. 15 Then the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood. 16 But the earth helped the woman. The earth opened its mouth and swallowed the flood which the dragon spewed out of his mouth. 17 Then the dragon was angry with the woman, and he went to wage war with the remnant of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
Footnotes
- Revelation 12:5
