Revelation 12:1-12
A great portent appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the
moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was
pregnant and was crying out in birth pangs, in the agony of giving birth.
Then another portent appeared in heaven: a great red dragon, with seven
heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. His tail swept down
a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. Then the
dragon stood before the woman who was about to bear a child, so that he
might devour her child as soon as it was born. And she gave birth to a
son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. But
her child was snatched away and taken to God and to his throne; and the
woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, so
that there she can be nourished for one thousand two hundred sixty days.
And war broke out in heaven; Michael and his angels fought against the
dragon. The dragon and his angels fought back, but they were defeated,
and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. The great dragon
was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan,
the deceiver of the whole world he was thrown down to the earth, and his
angels were thrown down with him.
Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, proclaiming,
"Now have come the salvation and the power
and the kingdom of our God
and the authority of his Messiah,
for the accuser of our comrades has been thrown down,
who accuses them day and night before our God.
But they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb
and by the word of their testimony,
for they did not cling to life even in the face of death.
Rejoice then, you heavens
and those who dwell in them!
But woe to the earth and the sea,
for the devil has come down to you
with great wrath,
because he knows that his time is short!"
