BWE - Revelation of John - 12

12:1  I saw a wonderful thing in the sky. A woman was wearing the sun like a dress. She stood on the moon. On her head she had twelve stars in a big ring like a crown. She was going to have a baby.

12:2  She cried out in pain because it was time for the baby to be born.

12:3  And another wonderful thing was seen in the sky. It was a big red dragon. He had seven heads and ten horns. He had seven big rings on his heads.

12:4  His tail struck a third part of the stars from the sky to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who would soon have a baby. He wanted to eat her baby when it was born.

12:5  Then her baby boy was born. He will rule all the countries with an iron stick. Her child was taken up to God, to God’s throne.

12:6  The woman ran away into the wilderness. There God had made a place ready for her. There she will have food for forty-two months.

12:7  Then there was fighting in heaven. Michael and his angels fought with the dragon. The dragon and his angels fought back.

12:8  But they did not win the fight and no longer were they allowed to stay in heaven.

12:9  The dragon was thrown down. He was that old snake who is called the devil and Satan. He fools all the people in the world. He was thrown down to earth and his angels were thrown down with him.

12:10  I heard a loud voice in the sky. It said, ‘Now the time has come for God to save people. He will use his strength. His kingdom will come and his Christ will use his power. The one who says bad things about our brothers to God day and night has been thrown down.

12:11  They have won the fight against him by the blood of the Lamb’s death, and by what they said. They did not try to save their lives, but were willing to die.

12:12  Heaven, and those who live in heaven, be glad because of it! Big trouble will come to the earth and sea! The devil has come down to you. He is very angry. He knows that he has only a short time!’

12:13  And when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to earth, he troubled the woman to whom a baby boy had been born.

12:14  But the woman was given two wings like a big eagle’s wings. With them she could fly away from the dragon into the wilderness to her place where she would have food for three and a half periods of time.

12:15  The dragon poured water like a river out of his mouth after her. He wanted the water to carry her away.

12:16  But the earth helped the woman. It opened a big hole. And the river which the dragon had poured out of his mouth went down the hole.

12:17  Then the dragon was very angry with the woman. He went away to fight against the other children of the woman. They are the ones who keep the laws of God and tell the truth about Jesus.