2 “‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false.

6 Yet this you have: you hate the works of the ^qNicolaitans, which I also hate.

14 But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold ^ethe teaching of ^fBalaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to ^gidols and practice ^hsexual immorality. 15 So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans.

20 But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman ^oJezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols.

11 Then I saw another beast rising out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb and ^kit spoke like a dragon. 12 It exercises all the authority of the first beast in its presence,¹ and makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose mortal wound was healed. 13 It performs great ^lsigns, even making fire ^mcome down from heaven to earth in front of people, 14 and by the signs that it is allowed to work in the presence of² the beast it deceives those who dwell on earth, telling them to make an image for the beast that 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 ⁿworship the image of the beast ^oto be slain. 16 Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave,³ to be marked on the right hand or the ^pforehead, 17 so that no one can buy or sell unless he has ^qthe mark, that is, the name of the beast or ^rthe number of its name. 18 ^sThis calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666.⁴

1 Then one of the ^wseven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the judgment of the ^xgreat prostitute ^ywho is seated on many waters, 2 ^zwith whom the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality, and with the ^awine of whose sexual immorality the dwellers on earth have become drunk.” 3 And he ^bcarried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of ^cblasphemous names, and it had ^dseven heads and ten horns. 4 The woman was arrayed ^ein purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a ^fgolden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality. 5 And on her ^gforehead was written a name of mystery: “Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth’s abominations.”

9 ^jAnd the kings of the earth, ^kwho committed sexual immorality and lived in luxury with her, will weep and wail over her when they see the smoke of her burning. 10 They will stand far off, in fear of her torment, and say,

11 And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn for her, since no one buys their cargo anymore, 12 cargo of gold, silver, jewels, pearls, fine linen, purple cloth, silk, scarlet cloth, all kinds of scented wood, all kinds of articles of ivory, all kinds of articles of costly wood, bronze, iron and marble, 13 cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, frankincense, wine, oil, fine flour, wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and chariots, and slaves, that is, human souls.¹

15 The merchants of these wares, who gained wealth from her, will stand far off, in fear of her torment, weeping and mourning aloud,

^mAnd all shipmasters and seafaring men, sailors and all whose trade is on the sea, stood far off 18 and cried out as they saw the smoke of her burning,

19 And they threw dust on their heads as they wept and mourned, crying out,

21 Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and ^othrew it into the sea, saying,