Revelation 12

The woman and the dragon

¹And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars;^•²and she is with child; and she cries out, in labor pains and in torment to give birth.^•

³And another sign appeared in heaven, and behold, a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems.^•⁴His tail sweeps away a third of the stars of heaven, and cast them to the earth. The dragon was standing before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her Child.^•⁵She gave birth to a Son, a male Child, who is about to shepherd all the nations with a rod of iron; and her Child was caught up to God and to His throne.^•⁶The woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, so that there they may nourish her for one thousand two hundred and sixty days.^•

The war in heaven

⁷And there was war in heaven: Michael and His angels made war against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels made war,^•⁸and he did not prevail, nor was a place found for them any longer in heaven.^•⁹And the great dragon was cast down, the ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast down to the earth, and his angels were cast down with him.^•

¹⁰And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying:^•

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 was cast down,^•who accuses them before our God day and night.^•¹¹And they conquered him because of the blood of the Lamb^•and because of the word of their testimony,^•and they did not love their life even to death.^•¹²Therefore rejoice, O heavens,^•and you who have your tabernacle in them.^•Woe to the earth and the sea,^•for the devil has come down to you,^•having great fury,^•knowing that he has little time.^•

The dragon pursues the woman

¹³When the dragon saw that he had been cast down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male Child.^•¹⁴The two wings of the great eagle were given to the woman, so that she might fly into the wilderness, to her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, away from the face of the serpent.^•¹⁵Then the serpent cast water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, so that she would be swept away by the river.^•¹⁶But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river that the dragon had cast out of his mouth.^•¹⁷Then the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war against the remnant of her offspring, those who keep the commandments of God and have the Testimony of Jesus. And he stood on the sand of the sea.^•

Notes

12:1 “Sign”: Gr. σημεῖον (cf. 12:3; 15:1). “Clothed with the sun”: Gr. περιβάλλω (cf. 3:5). “Twelve stars”: cf. Gen 37:9. “Crown”: Gr. στέφανος (cf. 2:10). ↩
12:2 “Cries out”: present in the Greek, as in the Textus Receptus; the Byzantine text reads “cried out”. “Labor pains”: Gr. ὠδίνω (cf. Isa 26:17; 66:7–8; Mic 4:10). “In torment”: Gr. βασανίζω (cf. 9:5). ↩
12:3 “Red”: Gr. πυρρός, lit. “fire-colored” (cf. 6:4). “Seven heads and ten horns”: cf. 13:1; 17:3, 7; Dan 7:7, 20, 24. “Diadems”: Gr. διαδήματα (cf. 13:1; 19:12). ↩
12:4 “Sweeps away”: present in the Greek. “A third of the stars”: cf. Dan 8:10. “Was standing”: Gr. ἕστηκεν, perfect. “Devour”: Gr. καταφάγῃ (cf. 10:9). “Child”: Gr. τέκνον; for the capital, cf. 12:5. ↩
12:5 “A Son, a male Child”: Gr. υἱὸν ἄρσεν (cf. Isa 66:7); the capital follows the identification given in the verse itself, the rod of iron of Ps 2:9. “Is about to”: Gr. μέλλει (cf. 1:19). “Shepherd… with a rod of iron”: cf. 2:27; 19:15; Ps 2:9. “Caught up”: Gr. ἡρπάσθη, “seized, snatched away”. ↩
12:6 “Wilderness”: Gr. ἔρημος (cf. 12:14; 17:3). “They may nourish”: Gr. τρέφωσιν, an impersonal plural. “One thousand two hundred and sixty days”: cf. 11:3; 12:14; 13:5. ↩
12:7 “Michael”: cf. Dan 10:13, 21; 12:1; Jude 9. “His”: the capital identifies Michael with Christ: the “great prince” who stands up over “the sons of your people” (Dan 12:1), the archangel (Jude 9) whose voice accompanies the Lord’s descent (1 Thess 4:16). Another reading sees here a created archangel, distinct from Christ. “Made war”: lit. “Michael and his angels to make war”, an infinitive in the Greek (τοῦ πολεμῆσαι); the Textus Receptus has the finite verb (ἐπολέμησαν). ↩
12:8 “He did not prevail”: singular in the Greek (the dragon), with Codex Alexandrinus and the Byzantine text; Codex Sinaiticus and the Textus Receptus read the plural, “they did not prevail”. The Byzantine text also reads “for him” in place of “for them”. ↩
12:9 “The ancient serpent”: cf. 20:2; Gen 3:1, 14. “devil”: Gr. διάβολος, “accuser, slanderer”. “Satan”: Heb. “adversary” (cf. Job 1:6; Zech 3:1). “Deceives”: Gr. πλανάω (cf. 2:20). “The whole world”: cf. 3:10. ↩
12:10 “Now”: Gr. ἄρτι. “His Christ”: cf. 11:15. “Accuser”: Gr. κατήγωρ (cf. Job 1:9–11; Zech 3:1). ↩
12:11 “Because of”: Gr. διά with the accusative. “Testimony”: Gr. μαρτυρία (cf. 6:9). “Life”: Gr. ψυχή (cf. Mark 8:35; John 12:25). ↩
12:12 “Rejoice”: Gr. εὐφραίνω (cf. 11:10). “Have your tabernacle”: Gr. σκηνοῦντες, “dwelling in a tent” (cf. 7:15; 13:6), in contrast with “those who dwell on the earth” (κατοικέω). “Woe”: Gr. οὐαί (cf. 8:13). “Fury”: Gr. θυμός (cf. 14:8, 10; 16:19). “Little time”: Gr. ὀλίγον καιρόν. Variant: the Textus Receptus reads “Woe to those who dwell on the earth and the sea”. ↩
12:13 “The male Child”: Gr. τὸν ἄρσενα (cf. 12:5). ↩
12:14 “Great eagle”: cf. Ex 19:4; Deut 32:11; Isa 40:31. “A time, and times, and half a time”: Gr. καιρὸν καὶ καιροὺς καὶ ἥμισυ καιροῦ (cf. 12:6; Dan 7:25; 12:7). “Away from the face”: Gr. ἀπὸ προσώπου. Variant: the Byzantine text reads “so that she may be nourished”. ↩
12:15 “Swept away by the river”: Gr. ποταμοφόρητον. Cf. Ps 18:4 (Heb. 18:5); 124:4; Isa 43:2. ↩
12:16 “Swallowed”: cf. Num 16:30–32. ↩
12:17 “Remnant”: Gr. οἱ λοιποί (cf. 2:24). “Offspring”: Gr. σπέρμα, lit. “seed” (cf. Gen 3:15). “Keep the commandments of God”: cf. 14:12. “The Testimony of Jesus”: cf. 1:2, 9; 19:10. Variant: the Textus Receptus reads “the Testimony of Jesus Christ”. “And he stood”: the dragon. In the critical editions of the Greek this sentence is v. 18; here the traditional verse count is kept and the sentence is joined to v. 17. The text follows the SBLGNT, with Papyrus 47 and codices Sinaiticus and Alexandrinus. Variant: the Byzantine text and the Textus Receptus read “And I stood” and place the sentence at the beginning of 13:1. ↩