And a great sign appeared in the sky: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a wreath of twelve stars. She was pregnant, and she cried out in labour, in the pain of giving birth.

And another sign appeared in the sky: look — a great dragon the colour of fire, with seven heads and ten horns, and seven royal bands on its heads. Its tail swept away a third of the stars of the sky and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth it could swallow her child.

And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is going to shepherd all the nations with an iron rod. And her child was snatched away to God and to his throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, so that they can feed her there for twelve hundred and sixty days.

And war broke out in the sky. Michael and his messengers fought against the dragon, and the dragon and its messengers fought back, and it was not strong enough, and there was no longer any place for them in the sky. And the great dragon was thrown down — the ancient snake, the one called the Slanderer and the Accuser, who leads the whole inhabited world off the road. He was thrown down to the earth, and his messengers were thrown down with him.

And I heard a loud voice in the sky saying:

“Now the rescue and the power and the kingdom of our God have come, and the authority of his Anointed — because the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, the one who accused them in front of our God day and night. And they came through and beat him by the blood of the Lamb and by the message they testified to, and they did not love their lives even up to death. So celebrate, you skies, and everyone living in them. Trouble for the earth and the sea, because the Slanderer has come down to you in a great rage, knowing he has only a short time.”

And when the dragon saw that it had been thrown down to the earth, it went after the woman who had given birth to the male child. And the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle, so that she could fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is fed for a time, and times, and half a time, out of the snake’s reach.

And the snake spat water like a river out of its mouth after the woman, to sweep her away in the flood. But the earth helped the woman: the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river the dragon had spat out. And the dragon was furious with the woman, and went off to make war on the rest of her children — the ones who keep God’s commands and hold on to the testimony of Jesus. And it stood on the sand of the sea.