Measure the Temple
11 1 Then I was given a measuring reed like a rod, and I was told: "Rise and measure the temple of our Father, and the altar, and those who worship there." 2 But leave out 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 forty-two months. a a v2 The forty-two months — like the 1,260 days and "time, times, and half a time" elsewhere in Revelation — is a symbolic span of limited, bounded trial, not a literal calendar count. 3 And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in mourning clothes. b b v3 1,260 days is the same span as the forty-two months in verse 2 — roughly three and a half years.
4 These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Sovereign of the earth. 5 If anyone tries to harm them, fire pours from their mouths and devours their enemies. This is how anyone who wants to harm them must be killed. 6 They have power to shut the sky so that no rain falls during the days of their prophesying, and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague, as often as they wish.
7 And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the abyss will wage war against them, and will conquer them and kill them. 8 Their bodies will lie in the street of the great city that is figuratively called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord — Jesus — was also crucified. 9 For three and a half days, people from every people, tribe, language, and nation will gaze at their bodies and refuse to let them be placed in a tomb. 10 Those who live on the earth will gloat over them and celebrate, sending gifts to one another, because these two prophets had tormented those who live on the earth.
11 But after the three and a half days, the breath of life from our Father entered them, and they stood on their feet, and great terror fell on those who watched them. 12 Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, "Come up here." And they went up to heaven in a cloud, while their enemies watched them. 13 At that very hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city collapsed. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to our Father in heaven.
14 The second woe has passed; look, the third woe is coming soon.
The Kingdom Becomes Our Father's
15 Then the seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and loud voices rang out in heaven, saying: "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Sovereign Father and of his Christ, and he will reign forever and ever." c c v15 The seventh trumpet announces that the kingdom of the world has become the joint reign of our Father and his Anointed One — Jesus. Father and Son share the throne forever (echoing Psalm 2 — our Father gives the nations to his Son).
16 And the twenty-four elders, who sit on their thrones before our Father, fell on their faces and worshiped him, 17 saying: "We give you thanks, Sovereign Father the Almighty, the one who is and who was, because you have taken up your great power and begun to reign." 18 "The nations raged, but your wrath has come, and the time for the dead to be judged, and to reward your servants the prophets and the saints and those who fear your name, both small and great, and to destroy those who destroy the earth."
19 Then the temple of our Father in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant appeared within his temple. And there were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and a great hailstorm.