The beast out of the sea

13 The dragon^[a] stood on the shore of the sea. And I saw a beast coming out of the sea. It had ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on its horns, and on each head a blasphemous name.

⁷ It was given power to wage war against God’s holy people and to conquer them. And it was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation.

⁵ you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house^[a] to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

¹⁶ Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives among you?

⁴ He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshipped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.

¹⁴ ‘When you see “the abomination that causes desolation”^[a] standing where it^[b] does not belong – let the reader understand – then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.

²⁴ They will fall by the sword and will be taken as prisoners to all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

This calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of God’s people.

² But exclude the outer court; do not measure it, because it has been given to the Gentiles. They will trample on the holy city for 42 months.

¹⁰ It grew until it reached the host of the heavens, and it threw some of the starry host down to the earth and trampled on them. ¹¹ It set itself up to be as great as the commander of the army of the Lord; it took away the daily sacrifice from the Lord, and his sanctuary was thrown down.