The 2 witnesses
1An angel gave me a measuring-stick and he told me: ‘You must come and measure the temple of God in heaven. You must also measure the altar and you must count the people who worship God in the temple. 2But do not measure the courtyard or open space with walls around it outside the temple. Leave it, because God gave it to the Gentiles. They will trample everything in the Holy City for 42 months.’
3And God said: ‘I will tell my 2 witnesses to put on sack-cloth and they must tell my message to the people for 1 260 days.’
4The 2 witnesses are the 2 olive trees and the 2 lamps before the Lord of all the world. 5If an enemy of the 2 witnesses wants to hurt them, then the fire coming out of their mouths will destroy that enemy. Yes, if an enemy of the 2 witnesses tries to hurt them, the 2 witnesses must kill the enemy with fire. 6God also gave them the power to stop the rain, and it will not rain while they tell God's message to the people. God also gave them power to change water to become blood, and they have the power to send a lot of other troubles and diseases to the earth when they want to.
7But after the 2 witnesses have told God's message to the people, the beast that lives in the underworld will fight against the 2 witnesses. The beast will win and will kill them. 8And the bodies of the 2 witnesses will lie in the streets of the great city where their Lord was crucified. The other names of that city are Sodom and Egypt.
9People of all nations and tribes and languages and lands will look at their dead bodies for 3 and a half days. The people will stop anyone who wants to bury the bodies of the 2 witnesses. 10And the people living on earth will be happy because the 2 witnesses are dead. They will shout with joy and they will send gifts to each other, because the 2 witnesses were prophets and they made the people suffer.
11But after 3 and a half days God breathed into his 2 witnesses and they became alive again. They stood on their feet and all the people who saw them became afraid. 12They heard Someone shouting_loudly from heaven and He said: ‘You must come up here.’
And the 2 witnesses went up to heaven in a cloud while their enemies looked at them. 13At the same time there was a big earthquake and it destroyed one 10th of the city. There were 7 000 people who died in the earthquake. The other people became afraid and they praised the God of heaven. 14The 2nd time of suffering is over. The 3rd time of suffering will come soon.
The 7th trumpet
15The 7th angel blew his trumpet and then the angels_in_heaven shouted_loudly and said:
‘The kings of the world
do not rule anymore.
Our Lord God and his Christ
are ruling now.
Our Lord will rule forever and ever.’
16The 24 elders who were sitting on their thrones before God knelt down with their faces to the ground and they worshipped God. 17They said:
‘We thank You, Lord God Almighty.
You are always here
and You were always here.
You show that You are very strong
and You rule.
18The nations were angry,
but now You are angry.
Yes, now is the time
when You will judge
all the people who have died.
Now is the time when You will
reward the prophets who have served You.
Now is the time when You will reward
all the people who belong to You,
and all the people who respect You,
both old people and children.
Now is the time when
You will kill people
who destroy the earth.’
19The doors of God's temple in heaven opened and one could see the covenant box in the temple. Then there was lightning and thunder. It made a very loud_noise. There was also an earthquake and big hail-stones fell down.
