Revelation 17:7

The angel said: "I will tell thee the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carrieth her." That is what we want to know. In the eighth verse we are told he shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition, that does not tell us much, but at least tells his character. Again, "the beast that was, and is not, and yet is." That seems almost contradictory. Did it refer to the fact that one of his heads was wounded to death and yet the beast lived? Did it refer to the fact that one dynasty would be swept away, but another djmasty would still continue the life of the beast? Did it refer to the fact that the judgment on the beast was already pronounced, but not yet carried out? That although all the vials were poured out in the vision yet the time of the beast's destruction was yet in the future? That the beast was prospectively dead since God had pronounced his doom, but the actual stroke had not yet fallen?

That is difficult to determine with the few details at hand, but the following verses will be rather more explicit.