The Dragon and the Child
12 A great sign appeared in the sky: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. 2 She was pregnant, and she cried out in pain and agony as she gave birth.
3 Another sign also appeared in the sky: There was a huge red dragon that had seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads. 4 His tail swept away a third of the stars in the sky and threw them to the earth. The dragon stood before the woman, who was about to give birth, so that he could devour the child as soon as it was born.
5 She gave birth to a son, a male child, who will shepherd all the nations with an iron rod. Her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. 6 Then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God in order that she might be fed there for 1,260 days.
War in Heaven
7 There was also a war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought with the dragon. The dragon fought back along with his angels, 8 but he was not strong enough. There was no longer a place for them[a] in heaven. 9 The great dragon was thrown down—the ancient serpent, the one called the Devil and Satan, the one who leads the whole inhabited earth astray—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.
10 I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying:
Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God
and the authority of his Christ,[b]
because the accuser of our brothers[c] has been thrown down,
the one who accuses them before our God day and night.
11 They conquered him
because of the blood of the Lamb and
because of the word of their testimony.
They did not love their lives in the face of death.
12 For this reason, rejoice, you heavens and those who dwell in them.
Woe to the earth and the sea,
for the Devil has gone down to you.
He is full of rage, because he knows that his time is short.
The Dragon Persecutes the Woman
13 When the dragon saw that he was thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman, who had given birth to the male child. 14 Two wings of the great eagle were given to the woman so that she might fly to her place in the wilderness, where she is to be fed for a time, and times, and half a time, away from the presence of the serpent. 15 And the serpent spewed water out of his mouth, like a river, after the woman, in order to carry her away in the flowing water. 16 But the earth helped the woman. The earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river, which the dragon had spewed out of its mouth.
17 The dragon was angry about what had happened to the woman, and he went away to make war against the rest of her children—those who keep the commandments of God and who hold on to the testimony about Jesus.
18 And he[d] stood on the shore of the sea.
Footnotes
- Revelation 12:8 Some witnesses to the text read him.
- Revelation 12:10 Or Anointed One
- Revelation 12:10 When context indicates it, the Greek word for brothers may refer to all fellow believers, male and female.
- Revelation 12:18 Some witnesses to the text read I.