요한계시록 17

The prostitute on the beast

¹Then one of the seven angels who held the seven bowls came and spoke to me. “Come,” he said, “I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute, who is seated on many waters. ²With her the kings of the earth committed sexual immorality, and the people of the earth got drunk on the wine of her immorality.” ³In the Spirit he took me away to a wilderness. I saw a woman seated on a scarlet beast. The beast was full of names that blasphemed God, and it had seven heads and ten horns. ⁴The woman wore purple and scarlet, and gold, precious stones, and pearls adorned her. She held a gold cup in her hand, brimming with abominations and with the uncleanness of her immorality. ⁵On her forehead was written a name, a mystery: “Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of the earth’s abominations.” ⁶And I saw the woman drunk on the blood of God’s holy people and on the blood of Jesus’s witnesses.

The sight of her filled me with great amazement. ⁷But the angel said to me, “Why are you amazed? Let me tell you the mystery of the woman, and of the beast with the seven heads and ten horns that carries her. ⁸The beast that you saw existed once and exists no longer; it is going to rise out of the abyss, and it goes on to destruction. The people of the earth, those whose names have not been written in the book of life since the world was founded, will marvel to see the beast, for it was, and is not, and will be present again.

⁹Here a wise mind is needed. The seven heads are seven mountains, and the woman is seated on them.^a They are also seven kings. ¹⁰Five of them have fallen; one is now; the other is still to come, and when he does, he must remain only briefly. ¹¹And the beast that was and is not^b is an eighth king, and yet it belongs to the seven, and it is on its way to destruction. ¹²As for the ten horns you saw, they are ten kings who have no kingdom yet; but together with the beast they receive royal authority for one hour. ¹³They are of one mind, and they hand over their power and authority to the beast. ¹⁴They will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings; and those who are with him are the called, the chosen, the faithful.”

¹⁵He went on: “The waters you saw, on which the prostitute sits, are peoples and crowds, nations and languages. ¹⁶The ten horns and the beast that you saw will turn against the prostitute in hatred, leave her ruined and naked, eat her flesh, and burn her up with fire. ¹⁷It is God who has moved their hearts to do what he intends: to act with one mind and to hand their kingdom over to the beast, until God’s words have been fulfilled. ¹⁸The woman you saw is the great city, the one that reigns over the kings of the earth.”