Revelation 13

13 ¹ And the dragon stood on the sand of the sea. Then I saw a beast rising out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, and on its horns ten crowns, and on its heads blasphemous names. ² And the beast I saw was like a leopard; its feet were like a bear's, and its mouth was like a lion's mouth. The dragon gave it his power and his throne and great authority. ³ One of its heads seemed to have been mortally wounded, but its fatal wound was healed. And the whole earth marveled as they followed the beast. ⁴ They worshiped the dragon because he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, "Who is like the beast, and who can wage war against it?"

⁵ The beast was given a mouth speaking arrogant and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months. ⁶ It opened its mouth to blaspheme our Father—to blaspheme his name and his dwelling, that is, those who dwell in heaven. ⁷ It was allowed to make war on the holy ones and to conquer them, and it was given authority over every tribe and people and language and nation. ⁸ And all who dwell on the earth will worship it, everyone whose name was not written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain. ⁹ If anyone has an ear, let him hear. ¹⁰ If anyone is destined for captivity, into captivity he goes; if anyone is to be killed with the sword, with the sword he must be killed. Here is the endurance and the faith of the holy ones.

A Second Beast From the Earth

¹¹ Then I saw another beast rising out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb, but it spoke like a dragon. ¹² It exercises all the authority of the first beast on its behalf, and it makes the earth and those who dwell in it worship the first beast, whose fatal wound was healed. ¹³ It performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in front of people. ¹⁴ And by the signs it was allowed to perform on behalf of the beast, it deceives those who dwell on the earth, telling them to make an image for the beast that was wounded by the sword and yet lived. ¹⁵ It was allowed to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast could even speak and have everyone who refused to worship the image of the beast put to death.

¹⁶ It also makes everyone—the small and the great, the rich and the poor, the free and the slave—receive a mark on their right hand or on their forehead, ¹⁷ so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, the name of the beast or the number of its name. ¹⁸ This calls for wisdom. Let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is six hundred sixty-six. ^a a v18 The number is described as "the number of a man" — a symbolic figure pointing to human rebellion, not a code to be solved with literal math.