1 Then came one of the seven angels with the seven plagues and spoke to me, saying, "Come and I will show you the doom of the great Harlot who is seated on many waters,
2 with whom the kings of earth have committed vice, and the dwellers on earth have been drunk with the wine of her vice."
3 So he bore me away rapt in the Spirit to the desert, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet Beast covered with blasphemous titles; it had seven heads and ten horns.
4 The woman was clad in purple and scarlet, her ornaments were of gold and precious stones and pearls, in her hand was a golden cup full of all abominations and the impurities of her vice,
5 and on her forehead a name was written by way of symbol, "Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and of all abominations on earth."
6 Then I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints and the blood of the witnesses of Jesus; and as I looked at her I marvelled greatly.
7 But the angel said to me, "Why marvel? I will explain to you the mystery of the woman, and of the Beast with the seven heads and the ten horns who carries her.
8 The Beast you have seen was, is not, but is to rise from the abyss ??yet to perdition he shall go ??and the dwellers on earth will wonder (all whose names have not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of Life), when they see that the Beast was, is not, but is coming.
9 Now for the interpretation of the discerning mind! The seven heads are seven hills, on which the woman is seated:
10 also, they are seven kings, of whom five have fallen, one is living, and the other has not arrived yet ??and when he does arrive, he can only stay a little while.
11 As for the Beast which was and is not, he is an eighth head: he belongs to the seven, and to perdition he shall go.
12 As for the ten horns you have seen, they are ten kings who have no royal power as yet, but receive royal authority for an hour along with the Beast;
13 they are of one mind, and they confer their power and authority upon the Beast.
14 They will wage war on the Lamb, but the Lamb will conquer them because he is Lord of lords and King of kings ??the Lamb and the elect, the chosen, the faithful who are with him."
15 He also told me, "The waters you saw, on which the woman is seated, are peoples and hosts, nations and tongues.
16 As for the ten horns you have seen, they and the Beast will hate the harlot, lay her waste, and strip her naked; they will devour her flesh and burn her with fire,
17 for God has put it into their hearts to execute his purpose, by having one mind and by conferring their royal power upon the Beast, until the words of God are fulfilled.
18 As for the woman you have seen, she is the great City which reigns over the kings of the earth."