6. These witnesses have power to close up the sky. Then it will not rain while they are prophesying. They also have power to turn the waters into blood. And they can strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they want to.
7. When they have finished giving their witness, the beast that comes up from the Abyss will attack them. He will overpower them and kill them.
8. Their bodies will lie in the street of the great city where their Lord was nailed to the cross. The city is sometimes pictured as Sodom, or as Egypt.
9. For three and a half days, people from every tribe, language and nation will stare at their bodies. They will refuse to bury them.
10. Those who live on the earth will be happy about this and will celebrate. They will send each other gifts, because these two prophets had made them suffer.
11. But after the three and a half days, a breath of life from God entered the two witnesses. They stood up. Terror struck those who saw them.
12. Then the two witnesses heard a loud voice from heaven. It said to them, "Come up here." They went up to heaven in a cloud. Their enemies watched it happen.
13. At that very hour there was a powerful earthquake. A tenth of the city crumbled and fell. In the earthquake, 7,000 people were killed. Those who lived through it were terrified. They gave glory to the God of heaven.
14. The second terrible judgment has passed. The third is coming soon.
15. The seventh angel blew his trumpet. There were loud voices in heaven. They said, "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ. He will rule for ever and ever."