17 Then
the dragon was angry with the woman, and went off to make war on the
rest of her children, those who keep the commandments of God and hold
the testimony of Jesus.
18 Then the dragon took his stand on the sand of the seashore.
(13th century manuscript of Revelation)
The
first thing I noticed about the final verses in this chapter is that
different translations place the last line differently. The ESV joins
these two verses into one and ends chapter 12 of Revelation with verse
17. The King James version ends the chapter at the end of verse 17
above, and puts the second half of this verse, (verse 18 here), at the
beginning of Revelation chapter 13, verse one, saying, "And I stood upon
the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise out of the sea...". This
happens on occasion in different versions of the Bible since the verses
were not published as numbered until the 16th century (chapter numbers were added in the 13th century...earliest manuscripts of the Bible are written in "scripta continua", without even punctuation, which entered the texts later on).
Verse 17 makes it clear that since the devil can't defeat the woman, who is said to symbolize Israel, or kill her son, Jesus Christ, he is has now decided to turn his attention to her followers and torment them and try to bring them to ruin. In this commentary at biblehub.com, the authors refer to Satan turning from persecuting Israel in general to focusing his ire on the offspring of the woman, whom they refer to in the link above as "the invisible Church", i.e. those who obey God and Christ.
In the Barnes Notes Commentary at the same site, the author suggests various historical events and figures for candidates of Satan's persecution, such as the persecution of heretics, the invasions of the western Roman Empire by various pagan peoples, and the papacy itself. Seeing this treatment of the papacy as aligned with darkness is not uncommon among protestant authors of this era (19th century).
A Prayer for Salvation from Christ:
Lord Jesus, I confess my sins and ask for your forgiveness. Please come into my heart as my Lord and Savior. Take complete control of my life and help me to walk in Your footsteps daily by the power of the Holy Spirit. Thank you Lord for saving me and for answering my prayer.
A more detailed step by step process:
https://www.wikihow.com/Accept-Jesus-Into-Your-Life
8 When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. 2 And I saw the seven angels who stand bef...