---
title: "Revelation 13 - Study King James Bible with commentary critical and explanatory on the whole bible"
description: "Read Revelation 13 with commentary critical and explanatory on the whole bible commentary. 1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon"
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[ Read](/kjv/revelation/13)[ Commentary](/study/revelation/13)[ Interlinear](/interlinear/revelation/13) Audio

 1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.

 2 And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as *the feet* of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.

 3 And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.

 4 And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who *is* like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?

 5 And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty *and* two months.

 6 And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.

 7 And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.

 8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

 9 If any man have an ear, let him hear.

 10 He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.

 11 And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.

 12 And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.

 13 And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,

 14 And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by *the means of* those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.

 15 And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.

 16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:

 17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

 18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number *is* Six hundred threescore *and* six.
 
[Revelation 12](/study/revelation/12) [Revelation 14](/study/revelation/14)

## Commentary

 To verse 1
 
**1. I stood**—So B, *Aleph,*
and *Coptic* read. But A, C, *Vulgate,* and *Syriac,*
"*He* stood." Standing on the sand of the *sea,*
HE *gave* his power to the beast that rose out of the sea. 

**upon the sand of the
sea**—where *the four winds* were to be seen *striving
upon the great sea* ([Daniel 7:2](/kjv/daniel/7/2)). 

**beast**—*Greek,*
"wild beast." Man becomes "brutish" when he
severs himself from God, the archetype and true ideal, in whose image
he was first made, which ideal is realized by the man Christ Jesus.
Hence, the world powers seeking their own glory, and not God's, are
represented as *beasts;* and Nebuchadnezzar, when in
self-deification he forgot that "the Most High ruleth in the
kingdom of men," was driven among the beasts. In [Daniel 7:2](/kjv/daniel/7/2)- : there are *four* beasts: here the *one* beast
expresses the sum-total of the God-opposed world power viewed in its
universal development, not restricted to one manifestation alone, as
Rome. This first beast expresses the world power attacking the Church
more from without; the second, which is a revival of, and minister
to, the first, is the world power as *the false prophet*
corrupting and destroying the Church from within. 

**out of the sea**— ([Daniel 7:2](/kjv/daniel/7/2)- :; compare *Note,* see on [Daniel 7:2](/kjv/daniel/7/2)- :); out of the troubled waves of *peoples, multitudes,
nations, and tongues.* The *earth* ([Daniel 7:2](/kjv/daniel/7/2)- :), on the other hand, means the consolidated, ordered world
of nations, with its culture and learning. 

**seven heads and ten horns**—A,
B, and C transpose, "ten horns and seven heads." The ten
horns are now put first (contrast the order, [Daniel 7:2](/kjv/daniel/7/2)- :) because they are crowned. They shall not be so till the
last stage of the fourth kingdom (the Roman), which shall continue
until the fifth kingdom, Christ's, shall supplant it and destroy it
utterly; this last stage is marked by the *ten toes* of the two
feet of the image in [Daniel 2:33](/kjv/daniel/2/33);
[Daniel 2:41](/kjv/daniel/2/41); [Daniel 2:42](/kjv/daniel/2/42).
The *seven* implies the world power setting up itself as God,
and caricaturing the *seven* Spirits of God; yet its true
character as God-opposed is detected by the number *ten*
accompanying the seven. Dragon and beast both wear crowns, but the
former on the heads, the latter on the horns ([Revelation 12:3](/kjv/revelation/12/3);
[Revelation 13:1](/kjv/revelation/13/1)). Therefore, both heads
and horns refer to kingdoms; compare [Revelation 17:7](/kjv/revelation/17/7);
[Revelation 17:10](/kjv/revelation/17/10); [Revelation 17:12](/kjv/revelation/17/12),
"kings" representing the kingdoms whose heads they are. The
*seven* kings, as peculiarly powerful—the great powers of the
world—are distinguished from the *ten,* represented by the
horns (simply called "kings," [Revelation 17:12](/kjv/revelation/17/12)- :). In Daniel, *the ten* mean the last phase of the
world power, the fourth kingdom divided into *ten parts.* They
are connected with the *seventh head* ([Revelation 17:12](/kjv/revelation/17/12)- :), and are as yet future [AUBERLEN].
The mistake of those who interpret the beast to be Rome exclusively,
and the *ten horns* to mean kingdoms which have taken the place
of Rome in Europe already, is, the fourth kingdom in the image has
TWO legs, representing the
eastern as well as the western empire; the ten toes are not upon the
one foot (the west), as these interpretations require, but on the two
(east and west) together, so that any theory which makes the ten
kingdoms belong to the west alone must err. If the ten kingdoms meant
were those which sprung up on the overthrow of Rome, the ten would be
accurately known, whereas twenty-eight different lists are given by
so many interpreters, making in all sixty-five kingdoms! [TYSO
in DE BURGH].
The seven heads are the seven world monarchies, Egypt, Assyria,
Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, the Germanic empire, under the last of
which we live [AUBERLEN],
and which devolved for a time on Napoleon, after Francis, emperor of
Germany and king of Rome, had resigned the title in 1806. FABER
explains *the healing of the deadly wound* to be the revival of
the Napoleonic dynasty after its overthrow at Waterloo. That secular
dynasty, in alliance with the ecclesiastical power, the Papacy ([Revelation 17:12](/kjv/revelation/17/12)- :, c.), being "the eighth head," and yet "of
the seven" ([Revelation 17:11](/kjv/revelation/17/11)),
will temporarily triumph over the saints, until destroyed in
Armageddon ([Revelation 19:17-21](/kjv/revelation/19/17-21)).
A Napoleon, in this view, will be the Antichrist, restoring the Jews
to Palestine, and accepted as their Messiah at first, and afterwards
fearfully oppressing them. Antichrist, the summing up and
concentration of all the world evil that preceded, is the eighth, but
yet one of the seven ([Revelation 17:11](/kjv/revelation/17/11)). 

**crowns**—*Greek,*
"diadems." 

**name of blasphemy**—So C,
*Coptic,* and ANDREAS.
A, B, and *Vulgate* read, "names of blasphemy,"
namely, a name on each of the heads blasphemously arrogating
attributes belonging to God alone (compare *Note,* see on [Revelation 17:11](/kjv/revelation/17/11)- :). A characteristic of the *little horn* in [Daniel 7:8](/kjv/daniel/7/8);
[Daniel 7:20](/kjv/daniel/7/20); [Daniel 7:21](/kjv/daniel/7/21);
[2 Thessalonians 2:4](/kjv/2-thessalonians/2/4).

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