1A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman dressed in the sun, with the moon under her feet, and a crown of twelve stars on her head.
2She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth.
3Then another sign appeared in heaven: a huge red dragon with seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns on his heads.
4His tail swept away a third of the stars in the sky and threw them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that he could eat her child as soon as it was born.
5She gave birth to a son, a male child, who is destined to rule all nations with a strong hand. Her child was taken up to God and to his throne.
6The woman fled into the wilderness to a place God had prepared for her, where she would be cared for for 1,260 days.
7Then there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back.
8But the dragon and his angels were not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven.
9The great dragon was thrown down—that ancient serpent called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world. He was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.
10Then I heard a loud voice in heaven saying: “Now salvation, power, and the Kingdom of our God have come, along with the authority of his Christ, because the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been thrown down.
11They defeated him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. They did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.
12Therefore, rejoice, you heavens and you who live in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to you, filled with furious anger, knowing that his time is short.”
13When the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he began to persecute the woman who had given birth to the male child.
14The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle so that she could fly into the wilderness to her place, where she would be nourished for a time, times, and half a time, away from the serpent’s presence.
15Then the serpent poured water out of his mouth like a river after the woman, to sweep her away with the flood.
16But the earth helped the woman by opening its mouth and swallowing the river that the dragon had poured out of his mouth.
17The dragon became angry with the woman and went off to make war against the rest of her children—those who keep God’s commands and hold on to their testimony about Jesus.