Revelation 11
The full text of Revelation 11 in the Trinity Bible Version — clear modern English, translated from the original Greek. Free to read.
1 I was given a measuring rod like a staff and was told: "Get up and measure the temple of God and the altar, and count the worshipers there.
2 But exclude the courtyard outside the temple; do not measure it, because it has been given to the nations. They will trample the holy city for forty-two months.
3 And I will appoint my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for one thousand two hundred sixty days, clothed in sackcloth.
4 These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord 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 die.
6 These two have power to shut up 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 When they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the Abyss will wage war against them, conquer them, and kill them.
8 Their bodies will lie in the street of the great city, which is figuratively called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified.
9 For three and a half days, people from every nation, tribe, language, and ethnic group 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 each other gifts, 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 God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them.
12 Then they heard a loud voice from heaven say 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 survivors were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.
14 The second woe has passed; the third woe is coming soon.
15 The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and loud voices in heaven were saying:
"The kingdom of the world has become
the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ,
and he will reign forever and ever."
16 And the twenty-four elders, who were seated on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshiped God,
17 saying:
"We give you thanks, Lord God Almighty,
the One who is and who was,
because you have taken 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,
your holy people, and those who fear your name,
both small and great,
and to destroy those who destroy the earth."
19 Then God's temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple. And there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and a great hailstorm.
Translation notes (11)
- Revelation 11:1a Greek kalamos (κάλαμος), 'reed', names a cane sturdy enough to serve as a measuring rod. The measuring act echoes Ezekiel 40-42, where a visionary temple is measured, and Zechariah 2:1-2. Naos (ναός), 'temple', denotes the sanctuary building proper rather than the whole precinct, which prepares for the exclusion of the outer court in the following verse.
- Revelation 11:2a The imperative ekbale exo, 'cast out', is rendered here as 'exclude'. The contrast is between the naos, 'sanctuary', and the aule, 'courtyard', i.e., the outer court. The phrase tois ethnesin, 'the nations' (often 'Gentiles'), and the forty-two months align with the one thousand two hundred sixty days in verse 3, the standard three-and-a-half-year apocalyptic span.
- Revelation 11:3a The Greek phrase dōsei tois dysin martysin mou, 'He will give to my two witnesses', can be rendered 'He will appoint my two witnesses'. The period of one thousand two hundred sixty days is equivalent to the forty-two months mentioned in Revelation 11:2 and the time, times, and half a time from Daniel 7:25.
- Revelation 11:4a The imagery adapts Zechariah 4, where two olive trees flank a single lampstand and are identified as the two anointed ones 'who stand by the Lord of the whole earth' (Zechariah 4:14). John doubles the lampstands, applying to the witnesses a symbol that in Zechariah figured Zerubbabel and Joshua, the royal and priestly leaders of the restoration.
- Revelation 11:7a Greek therion (θηρίον), 'beast', and abyssos (ἄβυσσος), 'Abyss', link this figure to Daniel 7's monsters; the wording make war and conquer echoes Daniel 7:21 in the Septuagint and Revelation 13:7. Revelation 17:8 has the beast ascending from the Abyss. Many early readers associated it with imperial Rome, sometimes the Nero redivivus expectation.
- Revelation 11:8a Greek pneumatikōs, literally 'spiritually', is rendered here as 'figuratively', marking a prophetic rather than geographic identification. The clause 'where also their Lord was crucified' points most naturally to Jerusalem, though some interpreters, noting that 'the great city' elsewhere in Revelation designates Babylon, extend the reference beyond one locale.
- Revelation 11:9a The Greek verb blepousin (βλέπουσιν), 'they will gaze', is followed by ek ton laon kai phylon kai glosson kai ethnon (ἐκ τῶν λαῶν καὶ φυλῶν καὶ γλωσσῶν καὶ ἐθνῶν), 'from the peoples and tribes and languages and nations', indicating the origin of those who gaze.
- Revelation 11:15a The Greek basileia (βασιλεία), 'kingdom', is singular: the world's one dominion changes hands rather than being replaced. The phrase 'our Lord and of his Christ' echoes Psalm 2:2, where rulers conspire against the Lord and his anointed, while the verb basileusei, 'he will reign', is also singular, joining God and his Christ in a single everlasting rule that recalls Daniel 7:14.
- Revelation 11:17a Unlike the threefold formula of Revelation 1:4, 1:8, and 4:8, the earliest Greek witnesses here lack 'and who is to come'; later copyists supplied the phrase to match those passages. Its absence suits the hymn's declaration that the awaited coming is now realized: the aorist ebasileusas, 'begun to reign', marks the inception of God's open rule.
- Revelation 11:18a In Greek the absence of 'and' between 'your servants' and 'the prophets' makes the latter appositional, rendered here as 'your servants the prophets'; two further groups are then coordinated: 'your holy people' and 'those who fear your name.' 'Both small and great' signals inclusivity, and 'destroy...destroy' preserves a wordplay.
- Revelation 11:19a The opening of the temple in heaven and the appearance of the ark of the covenant allude to the Mosaic covenant and theophany at Sinai, signaling God's presence and judgment.
About this translation
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