1I was given a long cane to use as a measuring rod, and was told: “Go and measure the temple of God and the altar, and count the worshippers.
2But leave the outer court of the temple out of your measurements; it has been given over to the Gentiles, and for forty-two months they will trample the Holy City underfoot.
3I will give my two witnesses authority to prophesy, dressed in sackcloth, for those twelve hundred and sixty days.”
4They are the two olive trees and the two lamps that stand in the presence of the Lord of the earth.
5If anyone tries to injure them, fire issues from their mouths and consumes their enemies; so shall anyone die who tries to do them injury.
6These two have the power to shut up the sky, so that no rain falls during the time of their prophesying; and they have power to turn water into blood and to afflict the earth with every kind of plague whenever they like.
7But when they have completed their testimony, the beast that comes up from the abyss will wage war on them and will overcome and kill them.
8Their bodies will lie in the street of the great city, whose name in prophetic language is Sodom, or Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified.
9For three and a half days people from every nation and tribe, language, and race, gaze on their corpses and refuse them burial.
10The earth's inhabitants gloat over them; they celebrate and exchange presents, for these two prophets were a torment to them.
11But at the end of the three and a half days the breath of life from God came into their bodies, and they rose to their feet, to the terror of those who saw them.
12A loud voice from heaven was heard saying to them, “Come up here!” and they ascended to heaven in a cloud, in full view of their enemies.
13At that moment there was a violent earthquake, and a tenth of the city collapsed. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake; the rest, filled with fear, did homage to the God of heaven.
14The second woe has now passed; but the third is soon to come.
15Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet. Voices in heaven were heard crying aloud: “Sovereignty over the world has passed to our Lord and his Christ, and he shall reign for ever!”
16The twenty-four elders, who sit on their thrones before God, prostrated themselves before him in adoration,
17saying: “O Lord God, sovereign over all, you are and you were; we give you thanks because you have assumed full power and entered upon your reign.
18The nations rose in wrath, but your day of wrath has come. Now is the time for the dead to be judged; now is the time for rewards to be given to your servants the prophets, to your own people, and to all who honour your name, both small and great; now is the time to destroy those who destroy the earth.”
19God's sanctuary in heaven was opened, and within his sanctuary was seen the ark of his covenant. There came flashes of lightning and peals of thunder, an earthquake, and a violent hailstorm.