11 Then 1 a measuring rod 2 like a staff was given to me, and I was told, 3 “Get up and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and the ones who worship there. 2 But 4 do not measure the outer courtyard 5 of the temple; leave it out, 6 because it has been given to the Gentiles, 7 and they will trample on the holy city 8 for forty-two months. 3 And I will grant my two witnesses authority 9 to prophesy for 1,260 days, dressed in sackcloth. 4 (These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth.) 10 5 If 11 anyone wants to harm them, fire comes out of their mouths 12 and completely consumes 13 their enemies. If 14 anyone wants to harm them, they must be killed this way. 6 These two have the power 15 to close up the sky so that it does not rain during the time 16 they are prophesying. They 17 have power 18 to turn the waters to blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague whenever they want. 7 When 19 they have completed their testimony, the beast that comes up from the abyss will make war on them and conquer 20 them and kill them. 8 Their 21 corpses will lie in the street 22 of the great city that is symbolically 23 called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was also crucified. 9 For three and a half days those from every 24 people, tribe, 25 nation, and language will look at their corpses, because they will not permit them to be placed in a tomb. 26 10 And those who live on the earth will rejoice over them and celebrate, even sending gifts to each other, because these two prophets had tormented those who live on the earth. 11 But 27 after three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and tremendous fear seized 28 those who were watching them. 12 Then 29 they 30 heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them: “Come up here!” So the two prophets 31 went up to heaven in a cloud while 32 their enemies stared at them. 13 Just then 33 a major earthquake took place and a tenth of the city collapsed; seven thousand people 34 were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.
14 The second woe has come and gone; 35 the third is coming quickly.
15 Then 36 the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven saying:
“The kingdom of the world
has become the kingdom of our Lord
and of his Christ, 37
and he will reign for ever and ever.”
16 Then 38 the twenty-four elders who are seated on their thrones before God threw themselves down with their faces to the ground 39 and worshiped God 17 with these words: 40
“We give you thanks, Lord God, the All-Powerful, 41
the one who is and who was,
because you have taken your great power
and begun to reign. 42
18 The 43 nations 44 were enraged,
but 45 your wrath has come,
and the time has come for the dead to be judged,
and the time has come to give to your servants, 46
the prophets, their reward,
as well as to the saints
and to those who revere 47 your name, both small and great,
and the time has come 48 to destroy those who destroy 49 the earth.”
19 Then 50 the temple of God in heaven was opened and the ark of his covenant was visible within his temple. And there were flashes of lightning, roaring, 51 crashes of thunder, an earthquake, and a great hailstorm. 52
12 Then 1 a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and with the moon under her feet, and on her head was a crown of twelve stars. 2 2 She 3 was pregnant and was screaming in labor pains, struggling 4 to give birth. 3 Then 5 another sign appeared in heaven: a huge red dragon that had seven heads and ten horns, and on its heads were seven diadem crowns. 6 4 Now 7 the dragon’s 8 tail swept away a third of the stars in heaven and hurled them to the earth. Then 9 the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child as soon as it was born. 5 So 10 the woman gave birth to a son, a male child, 11 who is going to rule 12 over all the nations 13 with an iron rod. 14 Her 15 child was suddenly caught up to God and to his throne, 6 and she 16 fled into the wilderness 17 where a place had been prepared for her 18 by God, so she could be taken care of 19 for 1,260 days.
7 Then 20 war broke out in heaven: Michael 21 and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. 8 But 22 the dragon was not strong enough to prevail, 23 so there was no longer any place left 24 in heaven for him and his angels. 25 9 So 26 that huge dragon – the ancient serpent, the one called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world – was thrown down to the earth, and his angels along with him. 10 Then 27 I heard a loud voice in heaven saying,
“The salvation and the power
and the kingdom of our God,
and the ruling authority 28 of his Christ, 29 have now come,
because the accuser of our brothers and sisters, 30
the one who accuses them day and night 31 before our God,
has been thrown down.
11 But 32 they overcame him
by the blood of the Lamb
and by the word of their testimony,
and they did not love their lives 33 so much that they were afraid to die.
12 Therefore you heavens rejoice, and all who reside in them!
But 34 woe to the earth and the sea
because the devil has come down to you!
He 35 is filled with terrible anger,
for he knows that he only has a little time!”
13 Now 36 when the dragon realized 37 that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. 14 But 38 the woman was given the two wings of a giant eagle so that she could fly out into the wilderness, 39 to the place God 40 prepared for her, where she is taken care of – away from the presence of the serpent – for a time, times, and half a time. 41 15 Then 42 the serpent spouted water like a river out of his mouth after the woman in an attempt to 43 sweep her away by a flood, 16 but 44 the earth came to her rescue; 45 the ground opened up 46 and swallowed the river that the dragon had spewed from his mouth. 17 So 47 the dragon became enraged at the woman and went away to make war on the rest of her children, 48 those who keep 49 God’s commandments and hold to 50 the testimony about Jesus. 51 And the dragon 52 stood 53 on the sand 54 of the seashore. 55
