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Revelation 11

1A reed like a rod was given to me, and I was told, “Get up and measure God's temple and the altar and those who worship in it. 2But leave out the court outside the temple and do not measure it, because it has been given to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for forty-two months. 3I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for one thousand two hundred sixty days, dressed in sackcloth.”

4These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands standing before the Lord of the earth. 5If anyone wants to harm them, fire comes from their mouths and devours their enemies. If anyone wants to harm them, this is how that person must be killed. 6They have authority to shut the sky so that no rain falls during the days of their prophecy. They have authority over the waters to turn them into blood, and to strike the earth with every plague as often as they wish.

7When they finish their testimony, the beast coming up from the abyss will wage war against them, overcome them, and kill them. 8Their dead bodies will lie on the main street of the great city, which is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was also crucified. 9People from the peoples and tribes and languages and nations look at their dead bodies for three and a half days and do not allow their bodies to be placed in a tomb. 10Those who live on the earth rejoice over them and celebrate, and they will send gifts to one another, because these two prophets tormented those who live on the earth.

11After the three and a half days, the breath of life from God entered them. They stood on their feet, and great fear fell on those watching them. 12They heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here.” They went up to heaven in the cloud, and their enemies watched them. 13At that hour there was a great earthquake. A tenth of the city fell, and seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake. The rest became terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven. 14The second woe has passed. Look! The third woe is coming soon.

15The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and loud voices arose in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign forever and ever.” 16The twenty-four elders seated on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God, 17saying, “We give you thanks, Lord God, the Almighty, who is and who was, because you have taken your great power and begun to reign. 18The nations were angry, and your anger came, and the time for the dead to be judged, and to give the reward to your slaves the prophets and to the holy ones and those who fear your name, the small and the great, and to destroy those who destroy the earth.”

19God's temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen in his temple. There were flashes of lightning and rumblings and peals of thunder and an earthquake and great hail.

Translation notes 4

11:1–3 — Measuring and authority. The speaker is not named in verse 1; “I was told” makes the speech intelligible without supplying an angel as its subject. “Authority” in verse 3 is supplied as what is granted. The forty-two months and 1,260 days remain the given periods, without an imposed date calculation.

11:4–8 — Witnesses and city. The olive trees and lampstands recall Zechariah 4; the judgments recall Moses and Elijah. These connections do not amount to explicit names for the witnesses. “Spiritually” indicates the figurative naming of the city as Sodom and Egypt; the crucifixion reference points to Jerusalem. The beast's overcoming does not end the witnesses' story.

11:8–13 — Bodies and breath. The Greek shifts between singular “corpse” used collectively and plural “corpses”; English uses the plural throughout. “Breath of life” can also be understood as “spirit of life.” “Seven thousand people” translates the idiomatic “seven thousand names of people.”

11:15–18 — Kingdom and judgment. “Messiah” makes the royal title explicit in “his Messiah.” The subject of “he will reign” remains singular, as in Greek. The base at verse 17 has “who is and who was,” without adding “who is coming” from the earlier formula. “Destroy those who destroy” retains the repeated verb; the latter can include corrupting or ruining the earth.