Revelation 11 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told, "Get up and measure God's temple and the altar, and count those who worship there.

But leave out the outer courtyard of the temple — don't measure it — because it has been handed over to the non-Jewish nations. They will trample the set-apart city for forty-two months.

"And I will authorize my two witnesses, and they will speak God's message for 1,260 days, dressed in rough clothing."

These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of all the earth.

If anyone tries to harm them, fire pours from their mouths and consumes their enemies. Anyone who wants to harm them will be killed this way.

These witnesses have the authority to shut up the sky so that no rain falls during the time they are speaking God's message. They also have authority to turn water into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they want.

When they finish giving their testimony, the beast that comes up from the abyss will wage war against them, overpower them, and kill them.

Their dead bodies will lie in the main street of the great city — which is symbolically called Sodom and Egypt — where their Lord was also executed on a stake.

For three and a half days, people from every nation, tribe, language, and ethnic group will stare at their dead bodies and refuse to let them be buried.

The people living on earth will celebrate over them, throw parties, and send gifts to each other, because these two messengers had tormented the people living on earth.

But after the three and a half days, the breath of life from God entered them, and they stood up on their feet — and absolute terror seized everyone who saw them.

Then the witnesses heard a loud voice from heaven saying, "Come up here!" And they went up to heaven in a cloud while their enemies watched.

At that very moment a massive earthquake hit, and a tenth of the city collapsed. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the survivors were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.

The second catastrophe has passed. Look — the third catastrophe is coming quickly.

Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and loud voices rang out in heaven saying, "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his One, and he will reign forever and ever!"

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

saying, "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.

The nations raged, but your rage has come. The time has come for judging the dead, for rewarding your servants the messengers, and all those who are set apart — those who honor your name, both ordinary and influential — and for destroying those who destroy the earth."

Then God's temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant could be seen inside his temple. And there were flashes of lightning, rumbling, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail.