Revelation 13

₁Then I saw a beast coming out of the sea. The beast had 10 horns and 7 heads. On the horns were 10 crowns and there were names written on his heads. They were names that mocked God. ₂The beast that I saw looked like a leopard. His feet looked like the feet of a bear and his mouth looked like the mouth of a lion. The dragon gave his power to the beast, and also his power to rule, and he said the beast could do anything that the dragon could do. ₃Then I saw that one of the heads of the beast was wounded and I thought that the beast would die. But the big wound healed and all the people on earth were amazed and they followed the beast. ₄The people worshipped the dragon because the dragon had given his power to the beast and they worshipped the beast and said: ‘No one is as powerful as the beast. No one can fight against him.’

₅God said the beast could mock Him and the beast could rule for 42 months. ₆The beast started to talk and he mocked God. He also mocked the name of God and the place where God lives. He mocked everyone who lives in heaven with God. ₇God said the beast could go to war_against the people who belong to God and the beast defeated them. Yes, God said the beast could rule over the people of all the tribes, nations, languages and lands. ₈The people on earth will worship the beast, all of them whose names are not written in the book_of_life. It is God who wrote the names of those people in the book_of_life. He did this before He made the world. The book_of_life is the book of the Lamb, who died on the cross.

₁₁Then I saw another beast that came out of the earth. He had 2 horns, like the horns of a lamb. But he spoke like a dragon. ₁₂The beast that came out of the earth ruled in place of the first beast, that came out of the sea. The beast from the earth told the people of the earth to worship the first beast, that had had a big wound and that had almost died, but had healed. ₁₃The beast from the earth did wonderful miracles. He even made fire fall down from the sky to the earth and the people saw it.

₁₄God gave the 2nd beast the power to do those miracles. The beast did the miracles for the first beast that came from the sea. The beast from the earth deceived the people of the earth with those miracles and he told them to make an idol that looked like the beast from the sea. Someone had wounded the beast from the sea with a sword, and he had a big wound, but he lived. ₁₅God gave the beast from the earth the power to make the idol come alive. This was the idol that he had made of the beast from the sea. The idol could speak and everyone had to worship_the_idol. Everyone who did not want to worship_the_idol was killed.

₁₆The beast from the earth told all the people to get a mark on their right hand or on their forehead. Everyone had to get the mark: children and old people, rich and poor people, slaves and people who were free. ₁₇The beast said that people who did not have the mark could not buy or sell anything. The mark is the name of the beast from the sea or the number of his name.

₁₈You must be very wise to know what this means. If anyone understands this, then he must think about what the number means. The number of the beast from the sea is a number of a person. The number is 666.