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10 If someone is destined for captivity,
    a captive he will be.
If someone is destined [to die][a] by the sword,
    by the sword he will die.

The endurance and faithfulness of the saints will be tested here.

11 As I watched, I saw a second beast, this one rising up from the earth. It had two horns like a lamb, but it was speaking with the voice of a dragon.

The second beast, which later becomes “the false prophet,” has horns like the lamb; but its true nature is revealed in its dragon-like voice. Many pretenders and posers exist in the spiritual world. This new beast wants the world to believe it represents the True God, the only King worthy of worship. But it’s a deceiver, a counterfeit of the true King; it steals devotion away from the one true God, producing signs to dazzle the inhabitants of the earth.

12 This earth-beast exercises all of the authority given to it by the first beast, and it forces the earth and all its inhabitants to bow down and worship the first beast, whose mortal wound had been healed.

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Footnotes

  1. 13:10 Other manuscripts read “to kill.”

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