And I saw a wild animal coming up out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, and ten royal bands on its horns, and on its heads names that were an insult to God. The animal I saw was like a leopard, and its feet were like a bear’s, and its mouth was like a lion’s mouth. And the dragon gave it its power and its throne and great authority.

And one of its heads looked as though it had been struck a fatal blow — but its death-wound had been healed. And the whole earth followed the animal, amazed. And they bowed to the dragon, because it had given its authority to the animal, and they bowed to the animal, saying, “Who is like the animal, and who can fight against it?”

And it was given a mouth that spoke great things and insults, and it was given authority to act for forty-two months. And it opened its mouth in insults against God — insulting his name and his dwelling, that is, those living in the sky. And it was allowed to make war on God’s people and to defeat them, and it was given authority over every tribe and people and language and nation. And everyone living on the earth will bow to it — everyone whose name has not been written, from the founding of the world, in the scroll of life belonging to the Lamb who was slaughtered.

If anyone has ears, listen. If anyone is for captivity, into captivity they go; if anyone is to be killed with a sword, with a sword they are killed. Here is the staying power and the trust of God’s people.

And I saw another wild animal coming up out of the earth, and it had two horns like a lamb, and it spoke like a dragon. It uses all the authority of the first animal on its behalf, and it makes the earth and everyone living on it bow to the first animal — the one whose death-wound had been healed. It performs great signs, even making fire come down out of the sky onto the earth where people can see it. And it leads the people living on the earth off the road by the signs it was allowed to perform on the animal’s behalf, telling those living on the earth to make an image of the animal that had been wounded by the sword and came back to life. And it was allowed to give breath to the image of the animal, so that the image could even speak, and could have everyone killed who would not bow to it.

And it makes everyone — small and great, rich and poor, free and slave — receive a stamp on their right hand or on their forehead, so that nobody can buy or sell unless they have the stamp: the name of the animal, or the number of its name.

Here is wisdom. Let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the animal, because it is a human being’s number. And its number is six hundred and sixty-six.