1Then a measuring rod like a staff was given to me, and I was told, “Get up and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and the ones who worship there.

2But do not measure the outer courtyard of the temple; leave it out, because it has been given to the Gentiles, and they will trample on the holy city for forty-two months.

3And I will grant my two witnesses authority 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.)

5If anyone wants to harm them, fire comes out of their mouths and completely consumes their enemies. If anyone wants to harm them, they must be killed this way.

6These two have the power to close up the sky so that it does not rain during the time they are prophesying. They have power to turn the waters to blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague whenever they want.

7When they have completed their testimony, the beast that comes up from the abyss will make war on them and conquer them and kill them.

8Their corpses will lie in the street of the great city that is symbolically called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was also crucified.

9For three and a half days those from every people, tribe, nation, and language will look at their corpses, because they will not permit them to be placed in a tomb.

10And 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.

11But after three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and tremendous fear seized those who were watching them.

12Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them: “Come up here!” So the two prophets went up to heaven in a cloud while their enemies stared at them.

13Just then a major earthquake took place and a tenth of the city collapsed; seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.

14The second woe has come and gone; the third is coming quickly.

The Seventh Trumpet

15Then 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,
and he will reign for ever and ever.”

16Then the twenty-four elders who are seated on their thrones before God threw themselves down with their faces to the ground and worshiped God

17with these words: “We give you thanks, Lord God, the All-Powerful,
the one who is and who was,
because you have taken your great power
and begun to reign.

18The nations were enraged,
but 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,
the prophets, their reward,
as well as to the saints
and to those who revere your name, both small and great,
and the time has come to destroy those who destroy the earth.”

19Then 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, crashes of thunder, an earthquake, and a great hailstorm.