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¹ Then came one of the seven angels who have the seven cups, and talked with me, saying: Come, I will show thee the judgment of the great harlot, who sitteth upon many waters;² with whom the kings of the earth have practised whoredom, and the inhabitants of the earth have been inebriated with the wine of her whoredom.³ And he led me in spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sitting on a red beast of prey, which was full of names of blasphemy, and had seven heads and ten horns.⁴ And the woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, and gilded with gold, and precious stones, and pearls; and she had a cup of gold in her hand, which was full of the pollutions and impurity of her whoredoms of the earth.⁵ And upon her forehead was the name written: Mystery: Babylon the great; the Mother of Harlots, and of the contaminations of the Earth.⁶ And I saw that the woman was intoxicated with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus. And when I saw her, I wondered with great amazement.

⁷ And the Angel said to me, Why dost thou wonder? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast of prey that beareth her, which hath the seven heads and the ten horns.⁸ The beast of prey which thou sawest, was, and is not; and he will ascend from the abyss and go into perdition: and the dwellers on the earth, whose names are not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, will wonder when they see the beast of prey, which was, and is not, and approacheth.⁹ Here is intelligence, for him who hath wisdom. Those seven heads are the seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.¹⁰ And there are seven kings: of whom five have fallen, one exists, and the other hath not yet come; and when he cometh he must continue for a short time.¹¹ And the beast of prey, which was and is not, is the eighth, and is from the seven, and is for perdition.¹² And the ten horns which thou sawest, are ten kings. These persons have not yet received royalty; but they receive authority, as if kings, with the beasts of prey, for one hour.¹³ They have one mind; and they will give their power and authority unto the beast of prey.

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