Revelation 11:12 - Printer Friendly

ESV: Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here!” And they went up to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies watched them.

NIV: Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, 'Come up here.' And they went up to heaven in a cloud, while their enemies looked on.

NASB: And they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, 'Come up here.' And they went up into heaven in the cloud, and their enemies watched them.

CSB: Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, "Come up here." They went up to heaven in a cloud, while their enemies watched them.

NLT: Then a loud voice from heaven called to the two prophets, 'Come up here!' And they rose to heaven in a cloud as their enemies watched.

KJV: And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them.

NKJV: And they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here.” And they ascended to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies saw them.

Those who witness the resurrection of the two witnesses also hear a loud voice. The voice commands the witnesses to come up to heaven. Then the witnesses ascend to heaven in a cloud as their enemies look on. We may assume some of those who watch the ascent will have seen astronauts pass through earth's atmosphere in spacecraft. However, the witnesses' ascent into heaven involves a cloud—it will be unlike anything they've seen before.

Unlike the rapture of the church, the "rapture" of the two witnesses is a public event. Their dead bodies have been shown around the world as unbelievers celebrate their deaths (Revelation 11:7–10). Perhaps the cloud in which the witnesses ascend is the shekinah glory cloud that settled over the tabernacle and guided the Hebrews by day across the Negev (Exodus 40:34–38). Also, it may have been the cloud that received Jesus into heaven while His disciples looked on (Acts 1:9). By killing the two witnesses and letting their bodies lie in a street, unbelievers worldwide thought they had triumphed over them, but God shows who the real victors are by raising them up all the way to heaven.

Revelation 11:3–14 follows on the heels of a brief assertion that the Gentiles will possess the temple's outer court and trample Jerusalem for forty-two months. We learn also that God will authorize two witnesses to prophesy during those forty-two months. Here we gain information about the two witnesses' ministry, what happens to them, and God's immediate response. The passage ends by alerting us to the fact that the second woe has ended, but the third woe is coming soon.

This chapter continues the interlude between the sixth and seventh trumpet judgments. John received a measuring rod and was told to measure the temple, the altar, and the worshipers. However, he was told not to measure the court outside the temple, because the Gentiles would overrun it for three and a half years. During that time, two divinely authorized witnesses would prophesy. They would have power to summon fire from heaven and to strike the earth with plagues. At the end of their testimony the beast from the pit will kill them and leave their bodies in a street in Jerusalem. But, three and a half days later, God will resurrect their bodies and draw them up to heaven. At that time a powerful earthquake will level a tenth of Jerusalem and kill seven thousand people. When the seventh trumpet sounds, loud voices in heaven proclaim Jesus as the possessor of the world's kingdoms, and the twenty-four elders praise Jesus as the Lord God Almighty who will begin to reign. He will judge the dead but reward His servants. The chapter ends with the opening of the temple in heaven.

The eleventh chapter of Revelation provides information about an event that transpires between the sounding of the sixth and seventh trumpets. It involves two powerful witnesses that God raises up in the middle of the tribulation. These two witnesses minister throughout the second half of the tribulation. They are martyred, but God raises them up and lifts them to heaven. Concurrent with their ascension a mighty earthquake destroys one tenth of Jerusalem and kills seven thousand people. This is the second woe. The first woe is described in chapter 9 as an invading army of locusts.

The word ''revelation'' means ''an unveiling or disclosure.'' This writing unveils future events such as the rapture, three series of judgments that will fall on the earth during the tribulation, the emergence of the Antichrist, the persecution of Israel and her amazing revival, as well as Jesus' second coming with His saints to the earth, the judgment of Satan and his followers, and finally, the eternal state. This content, combined with the original Greek term apokalypsis, is why we now refer to an end-of-the-world scenario as ''an apocalypse.''