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.
And after the three days and a half [the] spirit of life from God came into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon those beholding them.
The two witnesses lie dead in the street of the great city. The world refuses them burial and sends gifts to celebrate their silence. Then God acts. What looked like the end of their testimony becomes its most public moment — and the watching crowd is gripped by terror, not joy.
The world's rejoicing is cut short. One writer reads the reversal as God's verdict on two parties at once — the men who were killed, and the men who killed them.
But their triumph is brief. Only three and a half days have passed. Then a miraculous display of God's power terrifies them. It shows His acceptance of the fallen witnesses, and His anger against those who destroyed them and celebrated over them.
They do not just revive; they stand. One writer sees in that standing a settled strength, and traces the onlookers' fear to what their own consciences now admit.
The energy of life, eternal life, from God is put forth, and the witnesses rise in its power and stand on their feet. Their witness is finished and their trials are past. They stand in the strength and stability of a life that death cannot touch. The whole world watches this act of resurrection. The Gentiles who have turned away from God see it, and their own consciences admit that it is from God. The effect is terror and alarm.
One writer weighs the wording closely. The ESV reads "a breath of life"; older translations have "a spirit of life" — and the writer asks why it is not "the Spirit of life."
This was what marked what entered them and set them on their feet — a Spirit of life. The point was not to present the Spirit as an object, but to show the character of this sudden event and its source. To say "the Spirit of life" here would have gone too far. That would have amounted to a declaration that the Holy Spirit came and dwelt in them; but that was not the point. It was simply that this living power, from God, changed the whole state of things.
Refusing burial was meant as the final insult. It backfires: the enemies are standing right there when the bodies rise.
However, this wicked folly of Israel's leaders makes them witness their own defeat. 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 took a morbid delight in staring at the dead bodies. So they expose themselves to the terror of seeing them come to life. These witnesses stand there long enough to impress men with the reality of their resurrection.
Commentators differ on how to take the time note. One takes every period of time in the chapter as exact and still future.
The three and a half days mentioned twice (vv. 9, 11) are literal days. It is impossible to regard them otherwise. We are here on the eve of the events that close the last prophetic week… There is no room or need to take the time as anything but literal. The four periods of time named in this chapter are literal and exact. They belong to the coming crisis, not to past history.
Another allows a literal fulfilment in the crisis, yet reads most of the language as symbolic. He also marks what has changed in the testimony itself.
There may be a more literal fulfilment of this in the crisis. Even so, nothing in the reviving of the witnesses makes it strictly literal. On the contrary, the terms are mostly symbolic. "A spirit of life from God," though it may be applied that way, does not strictly describe a mere giving of life. It was, however, something different from a simple renewal of prophecy in sackcloth. The testimony now was by their public exaltation, not by their faithfulness under trial.
- Cause: The world celebrates for three and a half days over two silenced prophets. Then God's power reverses it, showing that He accepts His servants and is angry with their killers.
- Gift: What enters them is life from God. The wording does not name the Holy Spirit as a person living in them. It marks a living power whose source is God, and it changes everything at once.
- Reach: They stand on their feet in a life death cannot touch. Their witness is finished, their trials are past, their strength is settled.
- Result: The insult of leaving them unburied backfires. The enemies stand there as eyewitnesses of the resurrection they never wanted to see.
- Reading: Commentators differ on the three and a half days. Some take every period in the chapter as literal and still future. Others read the language as mostly symbolic. Both agree on one thing: the testimony now speaks through public exaltation, not through suffering.
And I heard a great voice out of the heaven saying to them, Come up here; and they went up to the heaven in the cloud, and their enemies beheld them.
God's two witnesses lay dead in the street while their killers celebrated, and now breath returns to them and a voice calls them up. Three questions follow: whose voice is it, why does the text say the cloud, and why does God do this in front of the men who killed them?
Who is calling, and where does the call take them? One writer answers both:
John then heard "a loud voice from heaven." This was the voice of Jehovah, or of someone He empowered. It spoke to the witnesses, now raised in bodies that are immortal and cannot decay. They stood in front of their enemies, and their enemies were overcome with fear. "Come up here." In Heaven they are to find their place and portion. What an answer to earth's scorn, reproach, and murder!
Translations differ here: some read "in a cloud," others "in the cloud." One writer says the difference matters:
It is not merely in a cloud, as some translations read, but in the cloud. I think it was the cloud seen at the start of Revelation 10, the one that wrapped around the mighty angel. That cloud is the known, special emblem of Jehovah's presence. It received the witnesses. It proved that their Lord, the Lord of heaven as well as earth, was on their side. They went up to heaven right in front of their enemies.
Walter Scott adds a contrast with the hope given to believers:
We are to be caught up in the clouds; they went up in the cloud, not in a cloud. Only here and in Luke 9:34 do we read of people entering into the glory cloud, the cloud of the divine presence.
Nothing here is hidden. Commentators note how this differs from every other departure to heaven in the Bible:
The public saw both things: the witnesses raised, and their triumphant departure from the scene of their testimony and suffering. In these two ways they differ from Christ and from the heavenly saints. No human eye saw Christ come out of the tomb, and only His disciples watched Him go up. There is not a hint that anyone on earth will see our coming resurrection and removal to heaven.
The enemies' own cruelty put them in the front row:
If they had buried them, they would not have seen this great sight. Instead they took a sick delight in staring at the dead bodies, so they left themselves open to the terror of seeing them come back to life. These witnesses stand there long enough to convince people that their resurrection is real. Then a great voice from heaven calls them to come up.
They lose everything on earth and gain everything in heaven. One writer sets the loss against the gain:
Earth throws them out. In our Lord's prophecy they appear as brothers of the King: hungry and thirsty, strangers, naked and sick and in prison. Heaven welcomes them with delight as people the earth was not worthy of — a gleaning after harvest, as it were, of wheat for God's granary. They have lost the blessing on earth; they have gained the blessing in heaven. Their light was put out for a time, so that it may shine in a higher place forever.
after fix: restores "earth" (original), splits hard sentences
Their rise is not only their vindication. It also signals what is coming for the powers that killed them:
They suffer under the beast, but are caught up to a heavenly portion, not an earthly one. Their going up foreshadowed the speedy fall of the beast and his followers.
- Silenced. Their enemies killed them and left them unburied. The world thought it had won.
- Summoned. A great voice from heaven — Jehovah's own, or one sent by Him — calls them up, and heaven becomes "their place and portion."
- Sheltered. They rise in the cloud, the known emblem of God's presence. It proves the Lord of heaven and earth was on their side all along.
- Seen. No hostile eye saw Christ rise, and none will see the saints caught up. This departure happens in full view of the murderers.
- Signal. Their going up warns of what comes next. Earth cast them out, heaven received them, and the beast falls soon after.
And in that hour there was a great earthquake, and the tenth of the city fell, and seven thousand names of men were slain in the earthquake. And the remnant were filled with fear, and gave glory to the God of the heaven.
The two witnesses have just risen and gone up to heaven in full view of their killers. In that same hour, the city that had gloated over their dead bodies is shaken to pieces. What follows is a strange half-response. The survivors honour God, but only because they are terrified.
Earthquakes run through this book. Does this one shake the ground, or only society?
Under the sixth seal, the earthquake is without doubt a violent breakup of society, of all government and social order. But here, in the narrow and limited sphere before us, we judge that a literal earthquake is meant. It will destroy a part of the city and kill seven thousand — a complete number devoted to death. Jerusalem has been the scene of similar visitations in the past, as it will be in the future. An upheaval of the forces of nature, bringing destruction of life and property, exactly suits the case. It would press on the rest of the guilty inhabitants the solemn fact that God's intervention in judgment was a stern reality.
The timing is deliberate.
The hour of triumph for the witnesses was the hour when justice repaid the city where they had testified. That city had shed their blood without cause. We understand a "tenth" here as meaning a complete judgment. So the ten plagues on Egypt were the sum of God's completed judgments upon that land.
Seven thousand is a number with a history in Israel, and here its meaning is turned around.
God devotes seven thousand here to death. That number reminds us of "the seven thousand in Israel" whom God had reserved for Himself (1 Kings 19:18) — again a link, by contrast, to the times of Elijah. We need not think of an exact company of just seven thousand, any more than the numbers in Revelation 7:4-8 and 14:3 are literal. What is before us is simply a full and perfect number, whether large or small.
The text literally says "names of men." One writer hears an edge in that.
The earthquake killed 7,000 persons — "names of men," as the text puts it here. That wording fits a history of doom for people who are asserting their greatness upon the earth.
The survivors give glory to God. But writers here read that as terror, not a change of heart.
The judgment then becomes alarming. The Spirit of God raises up the witnesses, and they go up to heaven. Then the rest, frightened but not converted, give glory to the God of heaven. But it is too late. No wonder the Lord says of that time that it is such as never was, and that unless those days are cut short, no one will be saved. There is alarm at the judgments disclosed, but no reception of the testimony. There is zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.
Another writer allows that the shaking achieves something, but leaves the deeper question open.
The shaking does some good, however. Those who were not killed were at least terrified enough to give glory to the God of heaven. Whether they were really brought to God in faith is another question.
Notice which name for God they choose.
It will be easier then for men to acknowledge God above in a vague way. It is harder to own Him as the Lord of the earth, who concerns Himself with what men do here below. The first might be only to regard Him as One seen in the distance... The worldly man can well allow the thought of God far off from himself, and this is just what we have here. They were alarmed by what was near. But there was no reception of the testimony, no conversion.
Why would frightened people reach for that title and no other? Because of what it lets them avoid.
Until the conscience is thoroughly searched and the soul brought into the light, there can be no fellowship with God. They wish Him away from the scene of their interests. When terror overwhelms their souls, they are willing enough to "give glory to the God of the heaven," because that keeps Him at a distance. But the special testimony of this book is to God's right and title to the earth. That is the very question in dispute with these people who have abandoned Him. So until men recognise God's right and claim to the earth, further and severer judgment must come.
- Hour. God honours the witnesses and strikes the city in the same hour — one event with two faces.
- Measure. The "tenth" and the "seven thousand" are not statistics. Each marks a complete judgment: a full, defined number given over to death.
- Names. The text lists the dead as "names of men." Reputation is worth nothing in a record of doom for people who assert their greatness.
- Fear. Terror produces honour, not repentance. There is alarm at the judgments, but no reception of the testimony. Writers differ on whether it ever goes deeper.
- Distance. They grant God heaven but deny Him the earth. That is the very claim His witnesses died for, so further and severer judgment must come.