John describes the captive as “the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan.” These terms all appeared in Revelation 12:9; see the notes on that passage for the significance of these descriptives. By listing these imposing names again, the Holy Spirit underlines how dangerous this enemy is to the church and to the cause of the Lord. Since the beginning, the devil has repeatedly sought to bruise the woman (Genesis 3:15). We must remember the words of Revelation 12:12: “Woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!” And Revelation 12:17: “The dragon…went off to make war on the rest of [the woman’s] offspring.”
2 And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years,