Study Desk

Rebuke the beast in the reeds,the herd of bulls with the calves of the peoples.Trample underfoot those with bars of silver.Scatter the peoples who take pleasure in war.

They supply water for every wild beast;the wild donkeys quench their thirst.

There will be no lion there,and no vicious beast will go up on it;they will not be found there.But the redeemed will walk on it,

“Suddenly, another beast appeared, a second one, that looked like a bear. It was raised up on one side, with three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. It was told, ‘Get up! Gorge yourself on flesh.’

“After this, while I was watching, suddenly another beast appeared. It was like a leopard with four wings of a bird on its back. It had four heads, and it was given dominion.

“After this, while I was watching in the night visions, suddenly a fourth beast appeared, frightening and dreadful, and incredibly strong, with large iron teeth. It devoured and crushed, and it trampled with its feet whatever was left. It was different from all the beasts before it, and it had ten horns.

“I watched, then, because of the sound of the arrogant words the horn was speaking. As I continued watching, the beast was killed and its body destroyed and given over to the burning fire.

“Then I wanted to be clear about the fourth beast, the one different from all the others, extremely terrifying, with iron teeth and bronze claws, devouring, crushing, and trampling with its feet whatever was left.

“This is what he said: ‘The fourth beast will be a fourth kingdom on the earth, different from all the other kingdoms. It will devour the whole earth, trample it down, and crush it.

I will attack themlike a bear robbed of her cubsand tear open the rib cage over their hearts.I will devour them there like a lioness,like a wild beast that would rip them open.

When they finish their testimony, the beast that comes up out of the abyss will make war on them, conquer them, and kill them.

And I saw a beast coming up out of the sea. It had ten horns and seven heads. On its horns were ten crowns, and on its heads were blasphemous names.

The beast I saw was like a leopard, its feet were like a bear’s, and its mouth was like a lion’s mouth. The dragon gave the beast his power, his throne, and great authority.

They worshiped the dragon because he gave authority to the beast. And they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast? Who is able to wage war against it?”

The beast was given a mouth to utter boasts and blasphemies. It was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months.

Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth; it had two horns like a lamb, but it spoke like a dragon.

It exercises all the authority of the first beast on its behalf and compels the earth and those who live on it to worship the first beast, whose fatal wound was healed.

It deceives those who live on the earth because of the signs that it is permitted to perform in the presence of the beast, telling those who live on the earth to make an image of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived.

It was permitted to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast could both speak and cause whoever would not worship the image of the beast to be killed.

This calls for wisdom: Let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, because it is the number of a person. Its number is 666.