A translator may wish to begin a new section here that will go through verse 18. This section deals with another beast, one that rose out of the earth.

Two horns like a lamb: these horns are small and inoffensive and depict this beast as a gentle creature. Lamb in certain languages will be rendered as “young male sheep” or “baby sheep.”

It spoke like a dragon: it is not certain what this implies, whether its speech was loud and harsh or gentle and persuasive, as was the snake’s in the Garden of Eden. This is the opinion of most commentators, but a dragon is rarely portrayed as a soft-spoken creature. It seems better to have the dragon speak harshly and furiously, if the translation must be explicit.

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Revelation to John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1993. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .