A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven:
a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars
on her head. She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth.
Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten
horns and seven crowns on his heads. His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and
flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give
birth, so that he might devour her child the moment it was born. She gave birth to a son,
a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter. And her child was
snatched up to God and to his throne.
The woman fled into the desert to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be
taken care of for 1,260 days. And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought
against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong
enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down - that
ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was
hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.
Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: "Now have come the salvation and the power
and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our
brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. They
overcame
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. Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell
in them!
|
Ascended
|
But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil
has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short."
When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman who had
given birth to the male child. The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that
she might fly to the place prepared for her in the desert, where she would be taken care of
for a time, times and half a time, out of the serpent's reach.
Then from his mouth the serpent spewed water like a river, to overtake the woman and
sweep her away with the torrent. But the earth helped the woman by opening its mouth and
swallowing the river that the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. Then the dragon was
enraged at the woman and went off to make war against the rest of her offspring - those
who obey God's commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus.