Revelation
Chapter 13
Overview
John’s vision now rises out of sea and land, where two beasts turn violence, spectacle, and economic pressure into a demand for worship. The first receives the dragon’s authority and wages war against God’s people; the second makes that rule look convincing through impressive signs and a speaking image. Evil here has a flair for theater, but its show rests on coercion. The chapter moves from amazement to enforced loyalty and finally to a cryptic number, marking a moment when endurance and clear judgment matter most.
1I saw a beast rising out of the sea. It had ten horns and seven heads, with ten royal crowns on its horns and names insulting God on its heads.
2The beast I saw was like a leopard. Its feet were like a bear’s, and its mouth was like a lion’s mouth. The dragon gave the beast its own power, its throne, and great authority.
3One of the beast’s heads looked as if it had been slaughtered, yet its fatal wound had healed. The whole earth was amazed and followed the beast.
4People worshiped the dragon because it had given authority to the beast. They also worshiped the beast and said, “Who is like the beast? Who can fight against it?”
5The beast was given a mouth that spoke proud claims and insults against God, and it was allowed to act for forty-two months.
6It opened its mouth to insult God—his name, his dwelling place, and those who live in heaven.
7The beast was allowed to wage war against God’s people and defeat them. It was also given authority over every tribe, people, language, and nation.
8Everyone living on earth will worship it—everyone whose name has not been recorded in the book of life belonging to the Lamb, the young sheep who was slaughtered from the foundation of the world.
9Anyone with ears should listen.
10If anyone is bound for captivity, that person will go into captivity. If anyone is to be killed by the sword, that person will be killed by the sword. Here is the patient endurance and faithfulness of God’s people.
11Then I saw another beast rising out of the land. It had two horns like a young sheep’s horns, but it spoke like a dragon.
12This second beast uses all the first beast’s authority while standing in its presence. It makes the earth and everyone living there worship the first beast, whose fatal wound had been healed.
13The second beast performs impressive signs. It even makes fire come down from heaven to earth while people watch.
14It deceives the people living on earth by the signs it is allowed to perform in the first beast’s presence. It tells them to make an image honoring the beast that had been wounded by a sword yet lived.
15The second beast was allowed to give breath to the first beast’s image, so that the image could speak and cause everyone who refused to worship it to be killed.
16It forces everyone—people of every rank, rich and poor, free and enslaved—to be given an identifying mark on the right hand or the forehead.
17No one can buy or sell without having the mark: either the beast’s name or the number represented by its name.
18This calls for wisdom. Anyone with understanding should work out the beast’s number, because it is the number of a person. Its number is six hundred sixty-six.