Revelation 11:9
7 When 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.
8 Their bodies will lie in the street of the great city—figuratively called Sodom and Egypt—where their Lord was also crucified.
For 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.
10 And 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.
11 But 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.
Here the Bible tells a story about someone else. Ask yourself what it can say to us today. Do read the surrounding verses too, because the context often says more than a single verse.
Compare
- BSB
- For 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.
- KJV
- And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves.
- WEB
- From among the peoples, tribes, languages, and nations, people will look at their dead bodies for three and a half days, and will not allow their dead bodies to be laid in a tomb.
- ASV
- And from among the peoples and tribes and tongues and nations do [men] look upon their dead bodies three days and a half, and suffer not their dead bodies to be laid in a tomb.
- DARBY
- 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.
- BLB
- And [those] of the peoples and tribes and tongues and nations look at their bodies three and a half days, and they will not allow their bodies to be put into a tomb.
- ÅB
- Og noen blant folkene og stammene og tungene og slektene skal se deres lik i tre dager og en halv, og ikke tillate at deres lik blir lagt i grav.
- OTB
- I tre og en halv dag vil folk fra hver stamme, språk og nasjon se på deres kropper og nekte dem begravelse.
- B1930
- Og nogen blandt folkene og stammene og tungene og ættene skal se deres lik i tre dager og en halv, og ikke tillate at deres lik blir lagt i grav.
Study notes (Tyndale)
Original text and word study
Cross references
Psalms 79:2–3
They have given the corpses of Your servants as food to the birds of the air, the flesh of Your saints to the beasts of the earth.
Read in contextRevelation 17:15
Then the angel said to me, “The waters you saw, where the prostitute was seated, are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues.
Read in contextRevelation 10:11
And they told me, “You must prophesy again about many peoples and nations and tongues and kings.”
Read in contextRevelation 11:11
But 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.
Read in contextRevelation 11:2–3
But 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.
Read in contextEcclesiastes 6:3
A man may father a hundred children and live for many years; yet no matter how long he lives, if he is unsatisfied with his prosperity and does not even receive a proper burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he.
Read in contextRevelation 13:7
Then the beast was permitted to wage war against the saints and to conquer them, and it was given authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation.
Read in contextMatthew 7:2
For with the same judgment you pronounce, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
Read in context