Put Not Your Trust in Princes
1 nPraise the Lord!
Praise the Lord, O my soul!
2 I will praise the Lord oas long as I live;
pI will sing praises to my God while I have my being.
3 qPut not your trust in princes,
rin a son of man, in whom there is sno salvation.
4 When this breath departs, he returns to the earth;
on that very day his plans perish.
5 uBlessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose vhope is in the Lord his God,
6 wwho made heaven and earth,
the sea, and all that is in them,
xwho keeps faith forever;
7 ywho executes justice for the oppressed,
zwho gives food to the hungry.
aThe Lord sets the prisoners free;
8 bthe Lord opens the eyes of the blind.
cThe Lord lifts up those who are bowed down;
dthe Lord loves the righteous.
9 eThe Lord watches over the sojourners;
fhe upholds the widow and the fatherless,
but gthe way of the wicked he brings to ruin.
10 hThe Lord will reign forever,
your God, O Zion, to all generations.
nPraise the Lord!
The First Beast
1 And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, owith ten horns and seven heads, with ten diadems on its horns and pblasphemous names on its heads. 2 And the beast that I saw was qlike a leopard; its feet were like ra bear’s, and its mouth was like sa lion’s mouth. And to it tthe dragon gave his power and uhis throne and great authority. 3 One of its heads seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed, and vthe whole earth marveled as they followed the beast. 4 And they worshiped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, w“Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?”
5 And the beast was given xa mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for yforty-two months. 6 It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling,1 that is, those who dwell in heaven. 7 Also it was allowed zto make war on the saints and to conquer them.2 And authority was given it over every tribe and people and language and nation, 8 and all awho dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in bthe book of life of cthe Lamb dwho was slain. 9 eIf anyone has an ear, let him hear:
10 fIf anyone is to be taken captive,
to captivity he goes;
gif anyone is to be slain with the sword,
with the sword must he be slain.
hHere is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints.
The Second Beast
11 Then iI saw another beast rising out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon. 12 It exercises all the authority of the first beast in its presence,3 and makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, jwhose mortal wound was healed. 13 kIt performs great signs, even lmaking fire come down from heaven to earth in front of people, 14 and by the signs that it is allowed to work in the presence of4 the beast mit deceives those who dwell on earth, telling them to make an image for the beast nthat was wounded by the sword and yet lived. 15 And it was allowed to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast might even speak and might cause those who would not oworship the image of the beast pto be slain. 16 Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave,5 qto be marked on the right hand or the forehead, 17 so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, rthe name of the beast or sthe number of its name. 18 tThis calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number uof a man, and his number is 666.6
