1 And one of the seven angels holding the seven bowls came and talked with me, saying, "Come, I will show you the sentence on the great prostitute who sits on many waters,
2 with whom the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality, and with the wine of whose sexual immorality the inhabitants of the earth have become drunk."
3 So he carried me off in the Spirit into a desert; and I saw a woman seated on a scarlet beast covered with names of blasphemy, which had seven heads and ten horns.
4 The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet and decked out with gold and precious stone and pearls, and in her hand she held a gold cup brimming with abominations and with the filthiness of her sexual immorality.
5 And upon her forehead was a written name: MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF THE PROSTITUTES AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
6 And I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus; and when I saw her, I wondered with great wonder.
7 And the angel said to me, "Why were you amazed? I will explain to you the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carries her, the one with the seven heads and the ten horns.
8 The beast you saw was, and is not, and is going to come up out of the abyss and go off to destruction. And those who live on the earth, whose names have not been written in the book of life since the founding of the world, will be amazed when they see the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.
9 This is where the mind with wisdom comes in: the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits.
10 They are also seven kings. Five have fallen, the one is, the other has not come yet; and when he comes, he has to remain for a short while.
11 And the beast that was and is not—it is itself an eighth, and is one of the seven, and is going off to destruction.
12 The ten horns you saw are ten kings, who have received no kingdom as yet, but who take authority as kings for a single hour together with the beast.
13 They share one purpose, and they will hand over their own power and authority to the beast.
14 They will wage war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will defeat them, because he is Lord of lords and King of kings; and those with him are the called and chosen and faithful."
15 And he tells me, "The waters you saw, where the prostitute is sitting, are peoples and crowds and nations and languages.
16 And the ten horns you saw on the beast—these will hate the prostitute, and will leave her desolate and stripped, and will eat her flesh and burn her up in fire.
17 For God has put it in their hearts to carry out his intent, and to act in one accord, and to give their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God are brought to completion.
18 And the woman you saw is the great city, the one that holds kingship over the kings of the earth."