1Then I stood on the sand of the sea. And I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, and on his horns were ten crowns, and on his heads were blasphemous names.
2The beast I saw was like a leopard, with feet like a bear’s and a mouth like a lion’s. The dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority.
3One of the beast’s heads seemed to have a fatal wound, but its fatal wound was healed. The whole world was astonished and followed the beast.
4They worshiped the dragon because he had given authority to the beast, and they also worshiped the beast and asked, “Who is like the beast? Who can wage war against it?”
5The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise its authority for forty-two months.
6It opened its mouth to blaspheme God, to slander his name and his dwelling place and those who live in heaven.
7It was given power to wage war against God’s holy people and to conquer them. And it was given authority over every tribe, people, language, and nation.
8Everyone living on the earth will worship him, except for those whose names were written before the world was made in the book of life belonging to the Lamb who was killed.
9If anyone can hear, let them listen.
10If anyone is meant to be captured, they will be captured. If anyone is meant to be killed by the sword, they will be killed. This calls for the perseverance and faith of God's people.
11Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth. He had two horns like a lamb, but he spoke like a dragon.
12The second beast uses all the authority of the first beast in its presence. It makes the earth and everyone living on it worship the first beast, the one whose fatal wound was healed.
13It performs amazing signs, even making fire come down from the sky to the earth in front of everyone.
14It misleads my own people who live on the earth through the signs it was allowed to do in the presence of the beast. It tells those who live on the earth to make a statue for the beast that was wounded by a sword and still lived.
15The second beast was allowed to give breath to the statue of the beast so that the statue could speak and have anyone who refused to worship it killed.
16It forces everyone—important and unimportant, rich and poor, free and slave—to receive a mark on their right hand or on their forehead.
17This means no one can buy or sell anything unless they have that mark, which is the name of the beast or the number representing its name.
18This calls for wisdom. Anyone with understanding should calculate the number of the beast, because it is the number of a man. His number is 666.