Revelation 12:12-13

12:12 Therefore you heavens rejoice, and all who reside in them!

But ¹  woe to the earth and the sea

because the devil has come down to you!

He ²  is filled with terrible anger,

for he knows that he only has a little time!”

12:13 Now ³  when the dragon realized ⁴  that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child.

Revelation 12:17

12:17 So ⁵  the dragon became enraged at the woman and went away to make war on the rest of her children, ⁶  those who keep ⁷  God’s commandments and hold to ⁸  the testimony about Jesus. ⁹  (12:18) And the dragon ¹⁰  stood ¹¹  on the sand ¹²  of the seashore. ¹³ 

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¹ tn The word “But” is not in the Greek text, but the contrast is clearly implied. This is a case of asyndeton (lack of a connective).

² tn Grk “and is filled,” a continuation of the previous sentence. Because English tends to use shorter sentences (especially when exclamations are involved), a new sentence was started here in the translation.

³ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” because the clause it introduces is clearly resumptive.

⁴ tn Grk “saw.”

⁵ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the implied result of the woman’s escape.

⁶ tn Grk “her seed” (an idiom for offspring, children, or descendants).

⁷ tn Or “who obey.”

⁸ tn Grk “and having.”

⁹ tn Grk “the testimony of Jesus,” which may involve a subjective genitive (“Jesus’ testimony”) or, more likely, an objective genitive (“testimony about Jesus”).

¹⁰ tn Grk “he”; the referent (the dragon) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹¹ tc Grk ἐστάθη (estaqh, “he stood”). The reading followed by the translation is attested by the better mss (Ì⁴⁷ א A C 1854 2344 2351 pc lat sy^h) while the majority of mss (051 Ï vg^mss sy^ph co) have the reading ἐστάθην (estaqhn, “I stood”). Thus, the majority of mss make the narrator, rather than the dragon of 12:17, the subject of the verb. The first person reading is most likely an assimilation to the following verb in 13:1, “I saw.” The reading “I stood” was introduced either by accident or to produce a smoother flow, giving the narrator a vantage point on the sea’s edge from which to observe the beast rising out of the sea in 13:1. But almost everywhere else in the book, the phrase καὶ εἶδον (kai eidon, “and I saw”) marks a transition to a new vision, without reference to the narrator’s activity. On both external and internal grounds, it is best to adopt the third person reading, “he stood.”

¹² tn Or “sandy beach” (L&N 1.64).

¹³ sn The standard critical texts of the Greek NT, NA²⁷ and UBS⁴, both include this sentence as 12:18, as do the RSV and NRSV. Other modern translations like the NASB and NIV include the sentence at the beginning of 13:1; in these versions chap. 12 has only 17 verses.