The First Beast

1Then ¹⁹²I stood on the sand of the sea. And I saw a beast coming up out of the sea that had ¹⁹³ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on his horns and ¹⁹⁴blasphemous names on his heads.

2The beast I saw was like a leopard; his feet were like those of a bear, and his mouth was like the mouth of a lion. The dragon gave the beast his power, his throne, and great authority.

3¹⁹⁵One of the beast's heads appeared to be mortally wounded. But his mortal wound had been healed, and ¹⁹⁶the whole world was amazed and followed the beast.

4They worshiped the dragon ¹⁹⁷that had given ¹⁹⁸his authority to the beast, ¹⁹⁹and they also worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who can wage war against him?”

5The beast was given a mouth to utter great boasts and ²⁰⁰blasphemy, and he was ²⁰¹given authority to wage war for forty-two months.

6And he opened his mouth to utter ²⁰²blasphemy against God and to slander his ²⁰³name and his tabernacle, that is, those who dwell in heaven.

7He ²⁰⁴was permitted to wage war against the saints and conquer them, and he was given authority over every tribe, ²⁰⁵people, tongue, and nation.

8All who dwell on the earth will worship him, ²⁰⁶everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain.

9If anyone has an ear, let him hear:

10“If anyone ²⁰⁷has captivity as his lot,
away he goes;
if anyone ²⁰⁸kills with the sword,
with the sword he must be killed.”
This calls for the endurance and the faith of the saints.

The Second Beast

11Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth. He had ²⁰⁹horns like a lamb, but he spoke like a dragon.

12He exercised all the authority of the first beast in his presence, and made the earth and those who dwell in it worship the first beast, whose mortal wound had been healed.

13He performed great signs, even ²¹⁰making fire come down from heaven to earth in the presence of the people.

14By the signs he was permitted to do in the presence of the first beast, he deceived ²¹¹my own people who dwell on the earth, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image of the first beast, who had ²¹²a wound from the sword but still lived.

15The second beast was permitted to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that the image could speak and cause whoever refused to worship the image to be killed.

16The second beast required everyone, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their forehead,

17so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the ²¹³mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of his name.

18This calls for wisdom: Let anyone who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man; his number is six hundred sixty-six.