1 And I saw a beast rising ^qout of the sea, with ten horns and ^rseven heads, with ten diadems on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads. 2 And the beast that I saw was ^slike a leopard; its feet were ^tlike a bear’s, and its mouth was ^ulike a lion’s mouth. And to it the ^vdragon gave his power and ^whis throne and great authority. 3 One of its heads seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed, and the whole earth ^xmarveled as they followed the beast. 4 And they ^yworshiped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, ^z“Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?”

5 And the beast was given ^aa mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for ^bforty-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 ^cto make war on the saints and to ^dconquer them.² And authority was given it over every ^etribe and people and language and nation, 8 and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the ^fbook of life of the ^gLamb who was slain. 9 If anyone has an ^hear, let him hear:

^jHere is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints.

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,³ 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 of⁴ 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,⁵ 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 666.⁶