Revelation 13:11-18

The wild animal from the land

11 Then I saw a second wild animal. This one was coming up out of the ground. It had two horns like a lamb's horns. But it spoke like a dragon. 12 It worked for the first wild animal and it used the authority of the first wild animal. It made all the people on earth worship the first wild animal. That first animal was the one that someone had hurt very much. It seemed that it would soon die but it had become well again.

13:11The wild animal from the ground seems to be a false prophet or a false Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit causes people to worship Jesus. This second wild animal causes people to worship the first wild animal.

13 The second wild animal did great miracles. It even caused fire to come down from heaven to the earth, while people watched. 14 It used the authority of the first wild animal to do many miracles. In that way, it deceived the people who lived on the earth. It told them to make an image of the first wild animal. This was the animal that was still alive after a sword had given it a bad wound. 15 The second wild animal received power to give life to the image of the first wild animal. As a result, the image could speak. It said, ‘Anyone who refuses to worship me must die!’

16 The second wild animal also caused everyone to receive a mark. Everyone received a mark on their right hand or on the front of their head. This included important people and ordinary people, rich people and poor people, free people and slaves. 17 Nobody could buy anything unless they had this mark on them. Nor could they sell anything. This mark shows the wild animal's name or the number of its name.

18 You must think carefully so that you can understand this number. Anyone who is wise should try to understand what the wild animal's number means. It is a human number. The number is 666.