Revelation 12 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

Then an enormous sign appeared in the sky: a woman wrapped in the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head.

She was pregnant and cried out in pain, screaming in the agony of giving birth.

Then another sign appeared in the sky: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns, and seven royal crowns on its heads.

Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, ready to devour her child the moment it was born.

She gave birth to a son — a male child who will rule all the nations with an iron staff. But her child was snatched up to God and to his throne.

The woman fled into the wilderness, to a place God had prepared for her, where she would be taken care of for 1,260 days.

Then war broke out in the heavens. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and its angels fought back.

But the dragon was not strong enough, and it lost its place in the heavens.

The enormous dragon was thrown down — that ancient serpent called the devil and Satan, the one who deceives the whole world. It was thrown down to the earth, and its angels were thrown down with it.

Then I heard a loud voice in the heavens say: "Now rescue has come — the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his One. Because the accuser of our brothers and sisters has been thrown down — the one who accuses them before our God day and night."

They won the victory over the dragon through the blood of the Lamb and through the word of their testimony — they did not cling to their own lives, even to the point of death.

So celebrate, you heavens, and everyone who lives in them! But how terrible for the earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to you burning with rage, knowing its time is short.

When the dragon realized it had been thrown down to the earth, it pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child.

But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle so she could fly to her place in the wilderness, where she would be taken care of for a time, times, and half a time — out of the serpent's reach.

Then the serpent spewed water like a river from its mouth after the woman, trying to sweep her away in the flood.

But the earth helped the woman — the ground opened its mouth and swallowed the river that the dragon had spewed from its mouth.

Then the dragon was furious with the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her children — those who follow God's commands and hold to the testimony of Jesus.