unfoldingWord_en_tn/rev/12/16.md

The earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river that the dragon was pouring out of his mouth

The earth is spoken of as if it were a living thing, and a hole in the earth is spoken of as if it were a mouth that could drink up the water. Alternate translation: "A hole in the ground opened up and the water went down into the hole" (See: rc://en/ta/man/translate/figs-personification)

dragon

This was a large, fierce reptile, like a lizard. For Jewish people, it was a symbol of evil and chaos. The dragon is also identified in verse 9 as "the devil or Satan." See how you translated this in Revelation 12:3. (See: rc://en/ta/man/translate/writing-symlanguage)