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Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and talked with me, saying to me, "Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters,
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with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication."
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So he carried me away in the Spirit into the wilderness. And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
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The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication.
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And on her forehead a name was written: MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
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I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her, I marveled with great amazement.
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But the angel said to me, "Why did you marvel? I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and the ten horns.
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The beast that you saw was, and is not, and will ascend out of the bottomless pit and go to perdition. And those who dwell on the earth will marvel, whose names are not written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world, when they see the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.
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Here is the mind which has wisdom: The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits.
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There are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, and the other has not yet come. And when he comes, he must continue a short time.
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And the beast that was, and is not, is himself also the eighth, and is of the seven, and is going to perdition.
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The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority for one hour as kings with the beast.