Bible Glide

Revelation 11 Summary, Context, and Full Chapter

Revelation 11 focuses on witness, conflict, and God's final authority. It follows the measuring of the temple, the ministry of the two witnesses, their death and vindication, and the sound of the seventh trumpet that announces God's kingdom and coming judgment.

What happens in Revelation 11?

John is told to measure the temple and altar, but not the outer court, which is given over to the nations for a set time. Two witnesses then prophesy in sackcloth, protected by God until their testimony is complete. The beast attacks them, kills them, and their bodies are left exposed for a short time while many rejoice. God then raises them and calls them up to heaven, followed by a deadly earthquake. The chapter closes with the seventh trumpet, proclaiming that the kingdom of the world belongs to the Lord and his Christ, with worship, judgment, reward, and the opening of God's heavenly temple.

This chapter stands near the center of Revelation's trumpet visions. It continues the sequence of warnings and judgments while highlighting faithful testimony in the midst of opposition. The chapter also begins to move the reader toward the climax of the book, where God's rule is openly declared and the final conflict comes into view.

  • Faithful witnessGod empowers his servants to speak his word even in hostile times.
  • Death and vindicationThe witnesses appear defeated, but God raises and honors them.
  • God's kingdomThe seventh trumpet announces that the Lord will reign and judge in full power.
  • What does the measuring of the temple suggest about God's care and boundaries in this chapter?
  • Why is the rise, death, and raising of the two witnesses so important to the message of Revelation 11?
  • How does the seventh trumpet change the tone of the book's unfolding visions?

Read the full text of Revelation 11 below, then open it in the reader to highlight, take notes, or ask follow-up Bible questions. No account is required to read.

Revelation 11

The Two Witnesses

1Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff and was told, “Go and measure the temple of God and the altar, and count the number of worshipers there.2But exclude the courtyard outside the temple. Do not measure it, because it has been given over to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for 42 months.3And I will empower my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.”

4These witnesses are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth.5If anyone wants to harm them, fire proceeds from their mouths and devours their enemies. In this way, anyone who wants to harm them must be killed.6These witnesses have power to shut the sky so that no rain will fall during the days of their prophecy, and power to turn the waters into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they wish.

The Witnesses Killed and Raised

7When the two witnesses have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the Abyss will wage war with them, and will overpower and kill them.8Their bodies will lie in the street of the great city—figuratively called Sodom and Egypt—where their Lord was also crucified.9For three and a half days all peoples and tribes and tongues and nations will view their bodies and will not permit them to be laid in a tomb.10And those who dwell on the earth will gloat over them, and will celebrate and send one another gifts, because these two prophets had tormented them.

11But after the three and a half days, the breath of life from God entered the two witnesses, and they stood on their feet, and great fear fell upon those who saw them.12And the witnesses heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Come up here.” And they went up to heaven in a cloud as their enemies watched them.13And in that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city collapsed. Seven thousand were killed in the quake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.

14The second woe has passed. Behold, the third woe is coming shortly.

The Seventh Trumpet

15Then the seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and loud voices called out in heaven:

“The kingdom of the world

has become the kingdom of our Lord

and of His Christ,

and He will reign forever and ever.”

16And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God,

17saying:

“We give thanks to You, O Lord God Almighty,

the One who is and who was,

because You have taken Your great power

and have begun to reign.

18The nations were enraged,

and Your wrath has come.

The time has come to judge the dead

and to reward Your servants the prophets,

as well as the saints and those who fear Your name,

both small and great—

and to destroy those who destroy the earth.”

19Then the temple of God in heaven was opened, and the ark of His covenant appeared in His temple. And there were flashes of lightning, and rumblings, and peals of thunder, and an earthquake, and a great hailstorm.

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