Revelation 17

1Then one of the seven angels who held the seven bowls came and spoke to me. “Come,” he said, “I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute, who is seated on many waters. 2With her the kings of the earth committed sexual immorality, and the people of the earth got drunk on the wine of her immorality.” 3In the Spirit he took me away to a wilderness. I saw a woman seated on a scarlet beast. The beast was full of names that blasphemed God, and it had seven heads and ten horns. 4The woman wore purple and scarlet, and gold, precious stones, and pearls adorned her. She held a gold cup in her hand, brimming with abominations and with the uncleanness of her immorality. 5On her forehead was written a name, a mystery: “Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of the earth’s abominations.” 6And I saw the woman drunk on the blood of God’s holy people and on the blood of Jesus’s witnesses. The sight of her filled me with great amazement. 7But the angel said to me, “Why are you amazed? Let me tell you the mystery of the woman, and of the beast with the seven heads and ten horns that carries her. 8The beast that you saw existed once and exists no longer; it is going to rise out of the abyss, and it goes on to destruction. The people of the earth, those whose names have not been written in the book of life since the world was founded, will marvel to see the beast, for it was, and is not, and will be present again.

9Here a wise mind is needed. The seven heads are seven mountains, and the woman is seated on them. They are also seven kings. 10Five of them have fallen; one is now; the other is still to come, and when he does, he must remain only briefly. 11And the beast that was and is not is an eighth king, and yet it belongs to the seven, and it is on its way to destruction. 12As for the ten horns you saw, they are ten kings who have no kingdom yet; but together with the beast they receive royal authority for one hour. 13They are of one mind, and they hand over their power and authority to the beast. 14They will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings; and those who are with him are the called, the chosen, the faithful.”

15He went on: “The waters you saw, on which the prostitute sits, are peoples and crowds, nations and languages. 16The ten horns and the beast that you saw will turn against the prostitute in hatred, leave her ruined and naked, eat her flesh, and burn her up with fire. 17It is God who has moved their hearts to do what he intends: to act with one mind and to hand their kingdom over to the beast, until God’s words have been fulfilled. 18The woman you saw is the great city, the one that reigns over the kings of the earth.”