Revelation
Chapter 11
Overview
Revelation 11 moves through a series of vivid visions about God’s temple, two courageous messengers, violent opposition, and a startling reversal. Numbers and images carry much of the weight: a measured sanctuary, a city under pressure, witnesses dressed for mourning, and a beast rising from a bottomless pit. The scene then shifts to heaven, where the final trumpet announces that the world’s rule belongs to God and his chosen king. Judgment and reward arrive together, like a storm that clears the air while shaking the ground.
1Then I was given a measuring reed like a staff. The speaker said, “Get up and measure God’s temple, the altar, and the people worshiping there.
2The speaker continued, “But leave out the courtyard outside the temple; do not measure it. It has been given to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for forty-two months.
3“I will empower my two witnesses, and they will speak as prophets for 1,260 days, dressed in rough mourning clothes made of 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 comes from their mouths and consumes their enemies. Anyone who tries to harm them must be killed in this way.
6They have authority to close the sky so that no rain falls while they speak as prophets. They also have authority to turn water into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of disaster whenever they wish.
7When they have finished delivering their message, the beast that rises from the bottomless pit will wage war against them. It will defeat them and kill them.
8Their bodies will lie in the main street of the great city. In symbolic terms, this city is called Sodom and Egypt. It is also where their Lord was crucified.
9For three and a half days, people from every people group, tribe, language, and nation will look at their bodies and refuse to let them be placed in a tomb.
10The earth’s inhabitants will celebrate their deaths and enjoy themselves. They will send gifts to one another, because these two prophets had tormented those who live on the earth.
11But after three and a half days, life-giving breath from God entered the two witnesses, and they stood on their feet. Everyone watching them was overcome with terror.
12The witnesses heard a loud voice from heaven say, “Come up here!” They rose to heaven in a cloud while their enemies watched them.
13At that very hour, a powerful earthquake struck. One-tenth of the city collapsed, and seven thousand people were killed. The survivors were terrified and acknowledged the greatness of the God of heaven.
14The second terrible disaster has passed. The third is coming soon.
15Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet. Loud voices in heaven said, “Rule over the world now belongs to our Lord and to his Messiah, his chosen king. He will rule forever and ever.”
16The twenty-four elders seated on their thrones before God fell facedown and worshiped him.
17They said, “We thank you, Lord God Almighty, the one who is and who was, because you have taken up your great power and begun to rule.
18“The nations became angry, but now your anger has come. The time has come for the dead to be judged, for your servants the prophets to receive their reward, and for all your people who honor your name—both the unimportant and the powerful—to be rewarded. The time has also come to destroy those who are destroying the earth.”
19Then God’s temple in heaven opened, and inside it appeared the sacred chest representing his covenant. Flashes of lightning, loud sounds, thunder, an earthquake, and a fierce hailstorm followed.