A word study on serpents in Scripture.
serpent 5175
viper (cockatrice or adder) 6848
dragon 8577
etc…
A cognate word to the Hebrew word for serpent (nah-ghash) is the word for witchcraft or divination (cf. Strong’s 5172 with 5175). Another cognate is the word for brass (cf. 5174 and 5178).
And God created the great sea monsters (lit. dragons), and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind; and God saw that it was good.
Genesis 1:21
Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made….And the LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you more than all cattle, and more than every beast of the field; on your belly shall you go, and dust shall you eat all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall crush you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel.”
Genesis 3:1,14-15
Dan shall be a serpent in the way (cf. Jdg 18, 1 Kg 12:29), a horned snake in the path, that bites the horse’s heels, so that his rider falls backward.
Genesis 49:17
And the LORD said to him, “What is that in your hand?” And he said, “A staff.” Then He said, “Throw it on the ground.” So he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from it. But the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand and grasp it by its tail”–so he stretched out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand….”And you shall take in your hand this staff, with which you shall perform the signs.”…So Moses took his wife and his sons and mounted them on a donkey, and he returned to the land of Egypt. Moses also took the staff of God in his hand. (For the staff as a rod of oppression or punishment cf. Is 9:3, 10:5,24-26, 14:5, 30:31-32).
Exodus 4:2-4,17,20
Now the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, “When Pharaoh speaks to you, saying, ‘Work a miracle,’ then you shall say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh, that it may become a serpent (lit. tanneen, the word translated dragon).'” So Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh, and thus they did just as the LORD had commanded; and Aaron threw his staff down before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a serpent (dragon). Then Pharaoh also called for the wise men and the sorcerers, and they also, the magicians of Egypt, did the same with their secret arts. For each one threw down his staff and they turned into serpents (dragons). But Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs. Yet Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he did not listen to them, as the LORD had said.
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Pharaoh’s heart is stubborn; he refuses to let the people go. Go to Pharaoh in the morning as he is going out to the water, and station yourself to meet him on the bank of the Nile; and you shall take in your hand the staff that was turned into a serpent (nah-ghash, the usual word for serpent; thus the word for dragon and serpent are used interchangably here in this passage).
Exodus 7:8-15
Then they set out from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; and the people became impatient because of the journey. And the people spoke against God and Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this miserable food (the manna from heaven which is the word of God).” And the LORD sent fiery (from the word sah-rahph, to burn; hence again we see the relationship of the serpent to the dragon; interestingly, this is the same word used in Is 6:2 and 6 for the seraphim; cf. also Is 14:29 and 30:6 for flying fiery serpents and Dt 8:15 for fiery serpent) serpents among the people and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. So the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, because we have spoken against the LORD and you; intercede with the LORD, that He may remove the serpents from us.” And Moses interceded for the people. Then the LORD said to Moses, “Make for yourself a fiery serpent (lit. a seraph) and set it on a standard; and it shall come about, that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, he shall live.” And Moses made a bronze (or brass; recall that the word for brass is cognate to the word for serpent) serpent and set it on the standard; and it came about, that if a serpent bit any man, when he looked to the bronze serpent, he lived.
Numbers 21:4-9
If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how shall you believe if I tell you heavenly things? And no one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven, even the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; that whoever believes may in Him have eternal life.
John 3:12-15
He led you through the great and terrible wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water; He brought water for you out of the rock of flint…
Deuteronomy 8:15
I will heap misfortunes on them; I will use My arrows on them. They shall be wasted by famine, and consumed by plague and bitter destruction; and the teeth of beasts I will send upon them, with the venom of crawling things of the dust.
Deuteronomy 32:23-24
For they are a nation lacking in counsel, and there is no understanding in them….Indeed their rock (a false Jesus) is not like our Rock (the true Jesus), even our enemies themselves judge this. For their vine is from the vine of Sodom, and from the fields of Gomorrah; their grapes are grapes of poison, their clusters, bitter (cf. Rev 14:18,19). Their wine is the venom of serpents (lit. dragons), and the deadly poison of cobras.
Deuteronomy 32:28,31-33
And Hezekiah did right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father David had done. He removed the high places and broke down the sacred pillars and cut down the Asherah. He also broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the sons of Israel burned incense to it; and it was called Nehushtan.
2 Kings 18:3-4
In the second year of the reign of Artaxerxes the great king, on the first day of Nisan, Mordecai the son of Jair, son of Shimei, son of Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Jew dwelling in the city Susa, a great man, serving in the king’s palace, saw a vision. Now he was of the captivity which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried captive from Jerusalem, with Jeconiah, king of Judah.
And this was his dream: Behold, voices and a noise, thunders and earthquake, tumult upon the earth. And, behold, two great dragons came forth, both ready for conflict, and there came from them a great voice, and by their voice every nation was prepared for battle, even to fight against the nation of the just. And, behold, a day of darkness and blackness, tribulation and anguish, affliction and great tumult upon the earth. And all the righteous nation was troubled, fearing their own afflictions; and they prepared to die, and cried to God; and from their cry there came as it were a great river from a little fountain, even much water. And light and the sun arose, and the lowly were exalted, and devoured the honorable. And Mordecai who had seen this vision and what God designed to do, having awoke, kept it in his heart, and desired by all means to interpret it, even till night.
Esther (Prologue in LXX)
And Mordecai said, “These things have been done of God. For I remember the dream which I had concerning these matters; for not one particular of them has failed. There was the little fountain, which became a river, and there was light, and the sun, and much water. The river is Esther, whom the king married, and made queen. And the two dragons are I and Haman. And the nations are those nations that combined to destroy the name of the Jews. But as for my nation, this is Israel, even they that cried to God, and were delivered; for the Lord delivered his people, and the Lord rescued us out of all these calamities; and God wrought such signs and great wonders as have not been done among the nations. Therefore did he ordain two lots, one for the people of God, and one for all the other nations. And these two lots came for an appointed season, and for a day of judgment, before God, and for all the nations. And God remembered his people, and vindicated his inheritance. And they shall observe these days, in the month Adar, on the fourteenth and on the fifteenth day of the month, with an assembly, and joy and gladness before God, throughout the generations for ever among his people Israel.
Esther (Epilogue in LXX)
Am I the sea, or the sea monster, that Thou dost set a guard over me?
Job 7:12
Though evil is sweet in his (the wicked’s) mouth, and he hides it under his tongue, though he desires it and will not let it go, but holds it in his mouth, yet his food in his stomach is changed to the venom of cobras within him. He swallows riches, but will vomit them up; God will expel them from his belly. He sucks the poison of cobras; the viper’s tongue slays him.
Job 20:12-16
He quieted the sea with His power, and by His understanding He shattered Rahab. By His breath the heavens are cleared; His hand has pierced the fleeing serpent (LXX reads “apostate dragon”).
Job 26:12-13
I have become a brother to jackals (or dragons, serpents), and a companion of ostriches.
Job 30:29
Can you draw out Leviathan (who is a type of Satan, the one behind Job’s trials; LXX reads “dragon”) with a fishhook? Or press down his tongue with a cord?…His sneezes flash forth light, and his eyes are like the eyelids of the morning. Out of his mouth go burning torches; sparks of fire leap forth. Out of his nostrils smoke goes forth, as from a boiling pot and burning rushes. His breath kindles coals, and a flame goes forth from his mouth (Leviathan is a dragon!)….He makes the depths boil like a pot; he makes the sea like a jar of ointment. Behind him he makes a wake to shine; one would think the deep to be gray-haired. Nothing on earth is like him, one made without fear. He looks on everything that is high; he is king over all the sons of pride. (This is the last of God’s words to Job out of the whirlwind).
Job 41:31-34
The wicked are estranged from the womb; these who speak lies go astray from birth. They have venom like the venom of a serpent; like a deaf cobra that stops up its ear, so that it does not hear the voice of charmers or a skillful caster of spells.
Psalm 58:3-5
Thou didst divide the sea by Thy strength; Thou didst break the heads of the sea monsters (lit. dragons) in the waters (possibly some reference to Egypt and the bondage to sin which Egypt represents, cf. Ps 89:9-10, Is 51:9 and 30:7; see also Ps 87:4, Job 9:13, 26:12). Thou didst crush the heads of Leviathan; Thou didst give him as food for the creatures (lit. the people) of the wilderness (cf. Ex 32:20, Num 11:31-34, and Ez 32:2-14, esp. vs. 4; LXX reads “for the Ethiopian nations”). Thou didst break open springs and torrents; Thou didst dry up ever-flowing streams.
Psalm 74:13-15
Thou dost rule the swelling of the sea; when its waves rise, Thou dost still them. Thou Thyself didst crush Rahab like one who is slain (cf. again Ps 74:13-15 and Rev 13:1-3), Thou didst scatter Thine enemies with Thy mighty arm….I shall also set his hand (who is the anointed son of David, i.e., Christ) on the sea, and his right hand on the rivers.
Psalm 89:9-10,25
You will tread upon the lion and cobra, the young lion and the serpent (lit. dragon) you will trample down.
Psalm 91:13
O LORD, how many are Thy works! In wisdom Thou hast made them all; the earth is full of Thy possessions. There is the sea, great and broad, in which are swarms without number, animals both small and great. There the ships move along, and Leviathan, which Thou hast formed to sport in it.
Psalm 104:24-26
Rescue me, O LORD, from evil men; preserve me from violent men, who devise evil things in their hearts; they continually stir up wars. They sharpen their tongues as a serpent; poison of a viper is under their lips.
Psalm 140:1-3
Praise the LORD from the earth, sea monsters (lit. dragons) and all deeps.
Psalm 148:7
Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaining? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes? Those who linger long over wine, those who go to taste mixed wine (perverted doctrines). Do not look on the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly; at the last it bites like a serpent, and stings like a viper. Your eyes will see strange things, and your mind will utter perverse things. And you will be like one who lies down in the middle of the sea, or like one who lies down on the top of a mast. They struck me, but I did not become ill; they beat me, but I did not know it (this is the harlot who doesn’t even know she is under judgment). When shall I awake (these are the sleeping virgins, drunk with the perverted doctrines of the harlot)? I will seek it yet again.
Proverbs 23:29-35
There are three things which are too wonderful for me, four which I do not understand: the way of an eagle in the sky, the way of a serpent on a rock, the way of a ship in the middle of the sea, and the way of a man with a maid. This is the way of an adulteress woman: she eats and wipes her mouth, and says, “I have done no wrong.”
Proverbs 30:18-20
And the nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child will put his hand on the viper’s den. They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.
Isaiah 11:8-9
[In Babylon] desert creatures will lie down there, and their houses will be full of owls, ostriches also will live there, and shaggy goats (or goat demons) will frolic there. And hyenas (or howling creatures) will howl in their fortified towers and jackals (or dragons) in their luxurious palaces.
Isaiah 13:21-22
In the year that King Ahaz died this oracle came: “Do not rejoice O Philistia, all of you, because the rod that struck you is broken (perhaps that rod was the king of Babylon, cf. the context of Is 14:1-27, or perhaps it was Ahaz, in which case the viper to arise from his root would be Hezekiah, who did smite the Philistines, cf. 2 Kg 16:19-20, 18:1,3,8); for from the serpent’s root a viper will come out, and its fruit (the serpent’s offspring?) will be a flying serpent (seraph, KJV translates flying fiery serpent; cf. Is 6:2,6 where the same words are used to refer to the seraphim flying about God’s throne).”
Isaiah 14:29
Come, my people, enter into your rooms, and close your doors behind you; hide for a little while, until indignation runs its course. For behold, the LORD is about to come out from His place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity; and the earth will reveal her bloodshed, and will no longer cover her slain. In that day the LORD will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, with His fierce and great and mighty sword (which is the word of God), even Leviathan the twisted serpent; and He will kill the dragon who lives in the sea.
Isaiah 26:20-27:1
The oracle concerning the beasts of the Negev. Through a land of distress and anguish, from where come lioness and lion, viper and flying serpent (seraph, KJV translates flying fiery serpent), they carry their riches on the backs of young donkeys and their treasures on camels’ humps, to a people who cannot profit them; even Egypt, whose help is vain and empty. Therefore, I have called her “Rahab who has been exterminated.”
Isaiah 30:6-7
Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD; awake as in the days of old, the generations of long ago. Was it not Thou who cut Rahab in pieces, who pierced the dragon? Was it not Thou who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep; who made the depths of the sea a pathway for the redeemed to cross over?
Isaiah 51:9-10
And thorns shall come up in its (Edom’s, representing the flesh) fortified towers, nettles and thistles in its fortified cities; it shall also be a haunt of jackals (or dragons–the same word is translated by modern texts both as dragon and jackal depending upon the context, cf. also Is 35:7, 43:20, Jer 9:11, 10:22, 14:6, 49:33, 51:37, Mic 1:8) and an abode of ostriches. And the desert creatures shall meet with the wolves (or howling creatures), the hairy (or demon) goat also shall cry to its kind; yes, the night monster (Lilith–“according to the Rabbins the lilith was a nocturnal spectre in the form of a beautiful woman that carried off children at night and destroyed them”, Smith’s Bible Dictionary, pg. 476 under Owl; in Talmudic demonology she was the wife of Adam before Eve and became the mother of all demons, Zondervan Encyclopedia) shall settle there and shall find herself a resting place. The tree snake shall make its nest and lay eggs there, yes, the hawks shall be gathered there, every one with its kind.
Isaiah 34:13-15
Behold, the LORD’s hand is not so short that it cannot save; neither is His ear so dull that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He does not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken falsehood, your tongue mutters wickedness. No one sues righteously and no one pleads honestly. They trust in confusion, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity. They hatch adders’ eggs and weave the spider’s web; he who eats of their eggs dies, and from that which is crushed a snake breaks forth…
Isaiah 59:1-5
“The wolf and the lamb shall graze together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox; and dust shall be the serpent’s food. They shall do no evil or harm in all my holy mountain,” says the LORD.
Isaiah 65:25
From Dan is heard the snorting of his (Satan’s, the king of Babylon’s) horses; at the sound of the neighing of his stallions the whole land quakes; for they come and devour the land and its fulness, the city and its inhabitants. “For behold, I am sending serpents against you, adders, for which there is no charm, and they will bite you,” declares the LORD.
Jeremiah 8:16-17
This is the message which the LORD spoke to Jeremiah the prophet about the coming of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon to smite the land of Egypt: …”Egypt is a pretty heifer, but a horsefly is coming from the north–it is coming!…Its sound moves along like a serpent; for they move on like an army and come to her as woodcutters with axes. They have cut down her forest,” declares the LORD; “Surely it will no more be found, even though they are now more numerous than locusts and are without number. The daughter of Egypt has been put to shame, given over to the power of the people of the north.”
Jeremiah 46:13,20,22-24
“Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has devoured me and crushed me, he has set me down like an empty vessel; he has swallowed me like a monster (or dragon), he has filled his stomach with my delicacies; he has washed me away. May the violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon,” the inhabitant of Zion will say; and, “May my blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea,” Jerusalem will say. Therefore thus says the LORD, “Behold, I am going to plead your case and exact full vengeance for you; and I shall dry up her sea and make her fountain dry. And Babylon will become a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals (or dragons), an object of horror and hissing, without inhabitants. They will roar together like young lions, they will growl like lions’ cubs. When they become heated up, I shall serve them their banquet and make them drunk (with perverted doctrines), that they may become jubilant (they believe a lie, just as has happened today) and may sleep a perpetual sleep and not wake up (these are foolish virgins),” says the LORD.
Jeremiah 51:34-39
Speak (to Pharaoh, king of Egypt) and say, Thus says the Lord GOD, “Behold I am against you, Pharaoh, king of Egypt, the great monster (dragon) that lies in the midst of his rivers, that has said, ‘My Nile is mine, and I myself have made it.’ And I shall put hooks in your jaws, and I shall make the fish of your rivers cling to your scales…”
Ezekiel 29:3-4
Son of man, take up a lamentation over Pharaoh king of Egypt, and say to him, “You compared yourself to a young lion of the nations, yet you are like the monster (dragon) in the seas; and you burst forth in your rivers, and muddied the waters with your feet, and fouled (lit. fouled by stamping) their rivers.” Thus says the Lord GOD, “Now I will spread My net over you with a company of many peoples, and they shall lift you up in My net. And I will leave you on the land; I will cast you on the open field. And I will cause all the birds of the heavens to dwell on you, and I will satisfy the beasts of the whole earth with you (cf. Ps 74:14).”…For thus says the Lord GOD, “The sword of the king of Babylon shall come upon you. By the swords of the mighty ones I will cause your multitude to fall; all of them are tyrants of the nations. And they shall devastate the pride of Egypt, and all its multitude shall be destroyed. I will also destroy all its cattle from beside many waters and the foot of man shall not muddy them anymore, and the hoofs of beasts shall not muddy them. Then I will make their waters settle, and will cause their rivers to run like oil,” declares the Lord GOD.
Ezekiel 32:2-4,11-14
Alas, you who are longing for the day of the LORD, for what purpose will the day of the LORD be to you? It will be darkness and not light; as when a man flees from a lion, and a bear meets him, or goes home, leans his hand against the wall, and a snake bites him. Will not the day of the LORD be darkness instead of light, even gloom with no brightness in it?
Amos 5:18-20
And though they hide on the summit of Carmel, I will search them out and take them from there; and though they conceal themselves from My sight on the floor of the sea, from there I will command the serpent (LXX reads dragon) and it will bite them.
Amos 9:3
“As in the days when you came out from the land of Egypt, I will show you miracles.” Nations will see and be ashamed of all their might. They will put their hand on their mouth, their ears will be deaf. They will lick the dust like a serpent, like reptiles of the earth. They will come trembling out of their fortresses, to the LORD our God they will come in dread, and they will be afraid before Thee.
Micah 7:15-17
New Testament Passages
serpent (herpeton, 2062; ophis, 3789, from the word “to see”)
dragon (drakon, 1404, from the word “to look”, cf. again Job 41:18)
viper (echidna, 2191)
But when he (John the Baptist) saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
Matthew 3:7
Or what man is there among you, when his son shall ask him for a loaf, will give him a stone? Or if he shall ask for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!
Matthew 7:9-12
Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; therefore be shrewd as serpents, and innocent as doves.
Matthew 10:16
You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart…
Matthew 12:34
You serpents, you brood of vipers, how shall you escape the sentence of hell?
Matthew 23:33
And these signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues; they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it shall not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.
Mark 16:17-18 (Not in oldest manuscripts)
And the seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.” And He said to them, “I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning. Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall injure you. Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven.”
Luke 10:17-20
But when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat, and fastened on his hand. And when the natives saw the creature hanging from his hand, they began saying to one another, “Undoubtedly this man is a murderer, and though he has been saved from the sea, justice has not allowed him to live.” However he shook the creature off into the fire and suffered no harm…
Acts 28:3-5
Now these things happened as examples for us, that we should not crave evil things, as they also craved. And do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and stood up to play.” Nor let us act immorally, as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in one day. Nor let us try the Lord, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the serpents. Nor grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer.
1 Corinthians 10:6-10
But I am afraid, lest as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds should be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.
2 Corinthians 11:3
For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails; for their tails are like serpents and have heads (the tails are the false prophets, cf. Is 9:15); and with them they do harm.
Revelation 9:19
And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; and she was with child; and she cried out, being in labor and in pain to give birth. And another sign appeared in heaven: and behold, a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads were seven diadems. And his tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven, and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her child. And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron; and her child was caught up to God and to His throne (the Ascension of Christ). And the woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God, so that there she might be nourished for one thousand two hundred and sixty days.
And there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon. And the dragon and his angels waged war, and they were not strong enough, and there was no longer a place found for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, who accuses them before our God day and night. And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even to death. For this reason, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them (cf. Eph 2:6). Woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, knowing that he has only a short time.”
And when the dragon saw that he was thrown down to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child. And the two wings of the great eagle were given to the woman, in order that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she was nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent. And the serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, so that he might cause her to be swept away with the flood. And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and drank up the river which the dragon poured out of his mouth. And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.
And he (the dragon, though some manuscripts read “I”, meaning John) stood on the sand of the sea (just as Jesus did, Mk 4:1). And I saw a beast coming up out of the (spiritual) sea (the false Jesus arises from the world and is according to its ways), having ten horns and seven heads (just like the dragon, cf. 12:3, for the beast is the image of Satan even as Jesus is the image of the Father), and on his horns were ten diadems, and on his heads were blasphemous names. And the beast which I saw was like a leopard, and his feet were like those of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave him his power and his throne and great authority (just as the Father gave Jesus His). And I saw one of his heads as if it had been slain, and his fatal wound was healed (this is the false crucifixion and the false resurrection of the false Christ; recall too that God crushed the head of Rahab the serpent which we are told in Is 30:6-7 is a type of Egypt, thus representing the bondage of sin and the flesh, cf. again Ps 89:9 and Is 51:9-10. In the same way, just as the true sons are raised with Christ to serve God in righteousness, so are false sons raised with a false Jesus from a false crucifixion to continue in their sins–what they supposed to be dead only appeared to be slain.) And the whole earth was amazed and followed after the beast; and they worshiped the dragon, because he gave his authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who is able to wage war with him?”…
Revelation 12:1-13:4
And I saw another beast coming up out of the earth (this beast is the false prophet, cf. 19:20); and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spoke as a dragon. And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence (or by his authority). And he makes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose fatal wound was healed….
Revelation 13:11-12
And the sixth angel poured out his bowl upon the great (spiritual) river, the Euphrates; and its (spiritual, life-giving) water was dried up, that the way might be prepared for the kings from the east. And I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs; for they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them together for the war of the great day of God, the Almighty. (“Behold, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his garments, lest he walk about naked and men see his shame.”) And they gathered them together to the place which in Hebrew is called Har-Magedon (Megiddo was one of the cities given to the sons of Manasseh by Joshua “but the sons of Manasseh could not take possession of these cities, because the Canaanites persisted in living in that land”, Joshua 17:12-13, Judges 1:27, 2:1-3; thus the mountain of Megiddo represents those places where the sons of Israel have not come to possess the land; precisely at those places they will be destroyed by the wrath of God. Confer also 2 Chron 35:20-24 where Josiah, a godly king, was destroyed by God at Megiddo for interfering with what God was doing through the king of Egypt.)
Revelation 16:12-16
And I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the abyss, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he should not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were completed; after these things he must be released for a short time….And when the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison, and will come out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together for the war; the number of them is like the sand of the seashore. And they came up on the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, and fire came down from heaven and devoured them. And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
Revelation 20:1-3,7-10