The Woman and the Dragon

12 And then a great ·wonder [sign; portent; ^Csymbolic descriptions of heavenly/spiritual realities] appeared in heaven: A woman was clothed with the sun, and the moon was under her feet [^Cindicating authority or victory; Gen. 37:9], and a crown [^Ca reward of victory] of twelve stars was on her head [^Crepresenting the twelve tribes of Israel; the woman is a symbol of the persecuted people of God]. ² She was ·pregnant [^Lin the womb] and cried out with [^Llabor] pain, because she was about to give birth [^Cto the Messiah]. ³ Then another ·wonder [sign; portent; 12:1] appeared in heaven: There was a giant red dragon with seven heads [^Creminiscent of the many-headed Leviathan representing evil and chaos, here representing Satan; Ps. 74:14; Is. 27:1; Dan. 7:1–9] and seven ·crowns [diadems; royal crowns] on each head. He [or It; ^Cthe Greek masculine pronoun can refer to a person or thing] also had ten horns [^Csymbols of strength and power; Dan. 7:7–8, 20, 24]. ⁴ His tail swept a third of the stars out of ·the sky [or heaven] and ·threw [cast; hurled; Dan. 8:10] them down to the earth [^Crepresenting an early victory against God’s people; 12:1]. He stood in front of the woman who was ready to give birth so he could ·eat [devour] her ·baby [child; ^CJesus the Messiah] as soon as it was born. ⁵ Then the woman gave birth to ·a son [^La son, a male child,] who will ·rule [or shepherd] all the nations with an iron ·rod [sceptre; 19:15; Ps. 2:9]. And her child was ·taken up [or snatched away; ^Cprobably a symbolic reference to the resurrection, where Satan’s victory was thwarted] to God and to his throne. ⁶ The woman ·ran away [fled] into the ·desert [wilderness] to a place God prepared for her where she would ·be taken care of [nourished; fed] for one thousand two hundred sixty days [^Cequal to three and one-half years; see 11:3].

⁷ Then there was a war in heaven. Michael [^Can archangel and protector of God’s people; Dan. 10:13, 21; 12:1; Jude 9] and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. ⁸ But the dragon was not strong enough, and he and his angels lost their place in heaven. ⁹ The ·giant [great] dragon was ·thrown down [cast; hurled] out of heaven. (He is that ·old snake [ancient serpent] called the devil or Satan [Gen. 3:1, 15], who ·tricks [deceives; leads astray] the whole world.) The dragon with his angels was ·thrown down [cast; hurled] to the earth.

¹⁰ Then I heard a loud voice in heaven saying:

[^LFor] The accuser [^Cthe name Satan means “Accuser” in Hebrew; Job 1:6–12; 2:1–6; Zech. 3:1–2] of our brothers and sisters,

¹³ When the dragon saw he had been ·thrown [cast; hurled] down to the earth, he ·hunted for [pursued; or persecuted] the woman who had given birth to the ·son [boy; ^Lmale]. ¹⁴ But the woman was given the two wings of a great ·eagle [or vulture; Ex. 19:4; Deut. 32:10–11; Is. 40:31] so she could fly to the place prepared for her in the ·desert [wilderness]. There she would be ·taken care of [nourished; fed] for ·three and one-half years [^La time, times, and half a time; 11:2, 3; 13:5; Dan. 7:25; 12:7], away from the ·snake [serpent; ^CGod will spiritually nourish his people though they are persecuted]. ¹⁵ Then the ·snake [serpent] ·poured [spewed; ^Lthrew] water out of its mouth like a river ·toward [after] the woman so the flood would ·carry [sweep] her away [^Coverwhelming water signifies overwhelming trouble; Ps. 18:4; 69:2]. ¹⁶ But the earth ·helped [rescued] the woman by opening its mouth and swallowing the river that ·came [spewed; ^Lwas thrown] from the mouth of the dragon. ¹⁷ Then the dragon was ·very angry [furious; full of wrath] at the woman, and he went off to make war against ·all her other children [^Lthe rest of her seed/offspring]—those who obey God’s commands and who ·have the message Jesus taught [or hold fast to their testimony about Jesus].

¹⁸ And the dragon^[a] stood on the ·seashore [^Lsand of the sea; ^Csome commentators and translations take this verse as the introduction to the episode in chapter 13].