And [men] of the peoples and tribes and tongues and nations see their body three days and a half, and they do not suffer their bodies to be put into a sepulchre.
The beast has just killed the two witnesses. Their bodies lie in the open street of the city where their Lord was crucified. What follows is not a burial but a public show: a watching world, a refused grave, and a fixed span of three and a half days.
The verse names one crowd. Writers point out that the surrounding verses sort the scene into separate groups, each with its own guilt.
There are three classes in this dark picture: (1) The beast who murders the witnesses. (2) Those "of the peoples, and tribes, and languages, and nations." They look at the bodies of the prophets, thrown out onto the street or the public places of the city, open to everyone's stares. They also show their hatred and scorn by forbidding the burial of the bodies, a shameful act. (3) "Those who dwell on the earth," the worst of the peoples of that day who had abandoned the faith. All the groups named here really live on the earth, but that phrase carries a moral meaning. They have turned their backs on Christianity. They firmly rejected the heavenly calling and chose the earth instead.
The distinction matters. Refusing burial is the malice of the nations. And those who celebrate miss what is about to happen.
The Gentiles and "those who dwell on the earth" rejoice over the silencing of this testimony. They little suspect that, in spite of the death of the witnesses, the prophecy is on the very eve of fulfilment... Here two classes stand apart: the nations or Gentiles, and the dwellers on the earth. Of the first, "some" — no doubt a vast majority — rejoice, and in their triumph will not even allow anyone to bury the bodies... These people love the world and live for it. So the witnesses' prophecy of a coming kingdom of righteousness and judgment is unbearable to them.
In Jerusalem's past, leaving a body unburied was itself part of God's judgment.
One of the judgments announced against the people of Jerusalem was that they should not be buried. Birds and wild animals would eat their bodies. Jeremiah 16:4. With God's two future witnesses in Jerusalem, the wicked will rejoice over their dead bodies and will not let anyone bury them. Then their joy turns to terror. They see them stand on their feet alive again, and watch them go up to heaven. Revelation 11:9-12.
Writers take the three and a half days as ordinary days, like the other time periods named in this chapter.
The three and a half days mentioned twice (vv. 9, 11) are literal days. It is impossible to take them any other way. We stand on the eve of the events that close the last prophetic week. Probably not many days remain, much less years, before the Lord returns to take His power and kingdom to Himself. The four periods of time named in this chapter are literal and exact. They belong not to the historical past, but to the coming crisis.
The bodies lie in one city, yet nations far away see them. One writer suggests how, and insists the death is no illusion.
The two witnesses suffer bitter rejection and apparent shameful defeat. Murdering them is not enough for their enemies. They leave their dead bodies on the street in Jerusalem... Other nations also watch these dead bodies for 3½ days, perhaps by means of television. There can be no doubt of their actual physical death.
The refusal to bury is meant as a final insult. It becomes the very thing that puts the enemies in front of God's answer.
In the sight of their enemies the two witnesses are raised from death and stand on their feet (v. 11). If they had buried them, they would not have seen this great sight. But they take a morbid delight in staring at the dead bodies. So they expose themselves to the terror of seeing them come to life.
Commentators differ over whether the witnesses are two persons or a larger company. The wording of this verse itself is part of the argument.
The beast "makes war against them, and overcomes them, and kills them." The nations, peoples and languages see their bodies "in the broad street of the city." This wording inclines me to think that they are not only two persons, but a large body of people. Their power is of God (v. 3), and He places them as His witnesses.
- Seen — Their bodies lie in the open street. People from every tribe, language and nation stare at them. The death is real, not staged.
- Scorned — Refusing a grave is open contempt. It echoes the old judgment on Jerusalem, where bodies were left unburied (Jeremiah 16:4).
- Sorted — The scene divides the guilty into three. The beast kills. The nations stare and forbid a grave. The earth-dwellers are worst, for their name marks a settled choice of earth over heaven.
- Short — The gloating lasts three and a half literal days, as exact as the other time periods in this chapter.
- Sprung — The insult becomes a trap. Because they refused a grave, the enemies are standing there when the witnesses rise, and their joy turns to terror.
And they that dwell upon the earth rejoice over them, and are full of delight, and shall send gifts one to another, because these, the two prophets, tormented them that dwell upon the earth.
Two prophets lie dead in the street of the great city. The world does not fall silent. It celebrates, with a worldwide holiday and gifts sent back and forth. The verse gives the reason in one word: torment.
Everyone in this chapter lives on the planet. So the phrase marks out something in the heart, not an address.
This phrase does not simply mean people who live on the earth. It carries a moral force. It means people who are earthly-minded at the core, who do not rise above the earth in heart or in ways.
Does the phrase point to a place, or to a state of heart?
In Revelation, "the earth" seems to mean what we would call the civilised world — a region the light has reached and where it has at least outwardly stayed. Yet wherever the words "those who dwell on the earth" occur, they readily bear a moral meaning. They are a class who make an outward profession of the light. They even admit that the testimony in the word of God is true — both its witness to the present grace of the gospel and its witness to the coming judgment on the world. Still, their interests lie only on the earth.
Verse 9 shows people from every nation refusing burial to the bodies. Verse 10 names a group that goes further.
There are three classes in this dark picture: (1) The beast who murders the witnesses. (2) Those "from the peoples and tribes and languages and nations," who look at the bodies of the prophets thrown out on the street of the city, exposed to the crude stares of the crowd. They show their hatred and scorn by forbidding the burial of the bodies — a shameful act. (3) "Those who dwell on the earth," the worst among the apostate peoples of that day… Bad as the beast and his allies are, these dwellers on the earth are infinitely worse. The nations deny burial to the bodies of the martyred witnesses; the earth-dwellers keep high and joyful holiday, and exchange gifts and congratulations over the killing of the prophets.
The same writer explains the custom behind the celebration.
Sending presents or gifts on occasions of public joy is an old and universal custom (Proverbs 19:6; Esther 2:18; Esther 9:19-22). Death has silenced the voice of the witnesses, and this is the cause of the public rejoicing.
The word "torment" explains the whole celebration. So what did the two prophets actually do to these people?
Unbelief likes present enjoyment. Anything that gets in the way of it and makes the conscience uneasy is hated and unwelcome.
The torment came from lives lived close to God among people who had turned away from Him.
The testimony of holy consistency and prophetic nearness to God is a constant torment to those whom that testimony confronts about their apostasy. A prophet like this is always a witness that, for all their pride and self-satisfaction, they have fallen away from God. That is torment, because they really have no peace with God, whatever they pretend.
The message itself was the problem, not only the messengers.
These people love the world and live for it. The witnesses foretold a kingdom of righteousness and judgment, and to such people that prophecy is unbearable. So their joy is intense when news comes that the hated witnesses are dead and the dreaded testimony is silent.
This reaction is not only a future thing. It can be seen now.
The careless world opposes true witness to Christ in the gospel. But it stirs a specially fierce resentment and rejection in today's modernists, whose effort is to reduce the faith of Christ to a mere scheme for earthly improvement. They deny that it came from heaven, and that it leads to heaven. They simply cannot stand its truth; it torments them.
The celebration collapses almost as soon as the gifts arrive.
Their triumph is brief. Only three and a half days pass before a miraculous display of God's power terrifies them. It shows His acceptance of the fallen witnesses and His wrath against the men who destroyed them and gloated over it.
The witnesses stand up. A voice calls them to heaven, and they go up while their enemies watch.
- Choice. "Those who dwell on the earth" is a moral label more than a location. These people admit the light and still fix their whole interest on this world.
- Torment. That choice is why the witnesses tormented them. Nearness to God exposed people who had turned away from Him and had no peace with Him.
- Silence. Killing the messengers looks like the end of the torment. So the news brings a worldwide holiday and gifts.
- Degrees. The beast murders. The nations deny burial. The earth-dwellers throw a party — and commentators call them the worst of the three.
- Reversal. The party lasts three and a half days. Then the witnesses stand up and rise to heaven while their enemies watch.