Revelation 11

Contemporary English Version

The Two Witnesses

11 ^(A) An angel gave me a measuring stick and said:

Measure around God's temple. Be sure to include the altar and everyone worshiping there. ²^(B) But don't measure the courtyard outside the temple building. Leave it out. It has been given to those people who don't know God, and they will trample all over the holy city for 42 months. ³My two witnesses will wear sackcloth,^[a] while I let them preach for 1,260 days.

⁴^(C) These two witnesses are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand in the presence of the Lord who rules the earth. ⁵Any enemy who tries to harm them will be destroyed by the fire that comes out of their mouths. ⁶^(D) They have the power to lock up the sky and to keep rain from falling while they are prophesying. And whenever they want to, they can turn water to blood and cause all kinds of terrible troubles on earth.

⁷^(E) After the two witnesses have finished preaching God's message, the beast that lives in the deep pit will come up and fight against them. It will win the battle and kill them. ⁸^(F) Their bodies will be left lying in the streets of the same great city where their Lord was nailed to a cross. And this city is spiritually like the city of Sodom or the country of Egypt.

⁹For three and a half days the people of every nation, tribe, language, and race will stare at the bodies of these two witnesses and refuse to let them be buried. ¹⁰Everyone on earth will celebrate and be happy. They will give gifts to each other, because of what happened to the two prophets who caused them so much trouble. ¹¹^(G) But three and a half days later, God will breathe life into their bodies. They will stand up, and everyone who sees them will be terrified.

¹²^(H) The witnesses then heard a loud voice from heaven, saying, “Come up here.” And while their enemies were watching, they were taken up to heaven in a cloud. ¹³^(I) At that same moment there was a terrible earthquake that destroyed a tenth of the city. Seven thousand people were killed, and the rest were frightened and praised the God who rules in heaven.

¹⁴The second horrible thing has now happened! And the third one will be here soon.

The Seventh Trumpet

¹⁵^(J) At the sound of the seventh trumpet, loud voices were heard in heaven. They said,

“Now the kingdom
    of this world
belongs to our Lord
    and to his Chosen One!
And he will rule
    forever and ever!”

¹⁶Then the 24 elders, who were seated on thrones in God's presence, knelt down and worshiped him. ¹⁷They said,

“Lord God All-Powerful,
you are and you were,
    and we thank you.
You used your great power
    and started ruling.
¹⁸^(K) When the nations got angry,
    you became angry too!
Now the time has come
for the dead
    to be judged.
It is time for you to reward
    your servants the prophets
and all your people
who honor your name,
    no matter who they are.
It is time to destroy everyone
who has destroyed
    the earth.”

¹⁹^(L) The door to God's temple in heaven was then opened, and the sacred chest^[b] could be seen inside the temple. I saw lightning and heard roars of thunder. The earth trembled and huge hailstones fell to the ground.

Footnotes

11.3 sackcloth: See the note at 6.12.
11.19 sacred chest: In Old Testament times the sacred chest was kept in the tent used for worship. It was the symbol of God's presence with his people and also of his agreement with them.