'Woman' in the Bible

But I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet and who teaches and leads my servants to practice immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols.

A spectacular sign appeared in the sky: a woman dressed with the sun, who had the moon under her feet and a victor's crown of twelve stars on her head.

Its tail swept away one-third of the stars in the sky and knocked them down to the earth. Then the dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth so that it could devour her child when it was born.

Then the woman fled into the wilderness, where a place had been prepared for her by God so that she might be taken care of for 1,260 days.

When the dragon saw that it had been thrown down to the earth, it pursued the woman who had given birth to the boy.

However, the woman was given the two wings of a large eagle so that she could fly away from the serpent to her place in the wilderness, where she could be taken care of for a time, times, and half a time.

From its mouth the serpent spewed water like a river behind the woman in order to sweep her away with the flood.

But the earth helped the woman by opening its mouth and swallowing the river that the dragon had spewed from its mouth.

The dragon became angry with the woman and went away to do battle against the rest of her children, the ones who keep God's commandments and hold on to the testimony about Jesus.

Then the angel carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness. I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was controlled by blasphemy. It had seven heads and ten horns.

The woman wore purple and scarlet clothes and was adorned with gold, gems, and pearls. In her hand she was holding a gold cup filled with detestable things and the impurities of her immorality.

I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints and the blood of the witnesses to Jesus. I was very surprised when I saw her.

"Why are you surprised?" The angel asked me. "I will tell you the secret of the woman and the beast with the seven heads and the ten horns that carries her.

This calls for a mind that has wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is sitting. They are also seven kings.

The woman you saw is the great city that rules over the kings of the earth."