Revelation 11

1Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff and was told, “Go and measure the temple of God and the altar, and count the number of worshipers there.

2But exclude the courtyard outside the temple. Do not measure it, because it has been given over to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for 42 months.

3And I will empower my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.”

4These witnesses are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth.*

5If anyone wants to harm them, fire proceeds from their mouths and devours their enemies. In this way, anyone who wants to harm them must be killed.

6These witnesses have power to shut the sky so that no rain will fall during the days of their prophecy, and power to turn the waters into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they wish.

7When the two witnesses have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the Abyss will wage war with them, and will overpower and kill them.

8Their bodies will lie in the street of the great city—figuratively called Sodom and Egypt—where their Lord was also crucified.

9For three and a half days all peoples and tribes and tongues and nations will view their bodies and will not permit them to be laid in a tomb.

10And those who dwell on the earth will gloat over them, and will celebrate and send one another gifts, because these two prophets had tormented them.

11But after the three and a half days, the breath of life from God entered the two witnesses, and they stood on their feet, and great fear fell upon those who saw them.

12And the witnesses heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Come up here.” And they went up to heaven in a cloud as their enemies watched them.

13And in that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city collapsed. Seven thousand were killed in the quake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.

14The second woe has passed. Behold, the third woe is coming shortly.

15Then the seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and loud voices called out in heaven:“The kingdom of the worldhas become the kingdom of our Lordand of His Christ,and He will reign forever and ever.”

16And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God,

17saying:“We give thanks to You, O Lord God Almighty,the One who is and who was,because You have taken Your great powerand have begun to reign.*

18The nations were enraged,and Your wrath has come.The time has come to judge the deadand to reward Your servants the prophets,as well as the saints and those who fear Your name,both small and great—and to destroy those who destroy the earth.”*

19Then the temple of God in heaven was opened, and the ark of His covenant appeared in His temple. And there were flashes of lightning, and rumblings, and peals of thunder, and an earthquake, and a great hailstorm.