"17 Then
one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me,
“Come, I will show you the judgment of the great whore who is seated on
many waters, 2 with
whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and with the
wine of whose fornication the inhabitants of the earth have become
drunk.” 3 So he carried me away in the spirit
into a wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that
was full of blasphemous names, and it had seven heads and ten horns. 4 The
woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and
jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations
and the impurities of her fornication; 5 and on her forehead was written a name, a mystery: “Babylon the great, mother of whores and of earth’s abominations.” 6 And I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints and the blood of the witnesses to Jesus.
When I saw her, I was greatly amazed. 7 But
the angel said to me, “Why are you so amazed? I will tell you the
mystery of the woman, and of the beast with seven heads and ten horns
that carries her. 8 The
beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to ascend from the
bottomless pit and go to destruction. And the inhabitants of the earth,
whose names have not been written in the book of life from the
foundation of the world, will be amazed when they see the beast, because
it was and is not and is to come.
9 “This calls for a mind that has wisdom: the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated..."
