If anyone wants to harm them, fire proceeds from their mouths and devours their enemies. In this way, anyone who wants to harm them must be killed.
Parallel translations
- WEB If anyone desires to harm them, fire proceeds out of their mouth and devours their enemies. If anyone desires to harm them, he must be killed in this way.
- KJV And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed.
- NKJV And if anyone wants to harm them, fire proceeds from their mouth and devours their enemies. And if anyone wants to harm them, he must be killed in this manner.
- NASB And if anyone wants to harm them, fire flows out of their mouth and devours their enemies; and so if anyone wants to harm them, he must be killed in this way.
- NLT If anyone tries to harm them, fire flashes from their mouths and consumes their enemies. This is how anyone who tries to harm them must die.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Fire from their mouths devours any who try to harm them. God divinely protects His witnesses until their work is done.
Overview
The fire recalls Elijah calling down fire (2 Kings 1) and Jeremiah's word that becomes fire (Jeremiah 5:14), suggesting the consuming power of the prophetic word and God's defense of His servants. No enemy can cut short their testimony before its appointed end. This assures the church that God guards His witnessing people throughout their mission. Their security rests in God's protection, not their own strength.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Jer 5:14Therefore this is what the LORD God of Hosts says: “Because you have spoken this word, I will make My words a fire in your mouth and this people the wood it consumes.
- 2 Kgs 1:10–12Elijah answered the captain, “If I am a man of God, may fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men.” And fire came down from heaven and consumed the captain and his fifty men.
- Hos 6:5Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of My mouth, and My judgments go forth like lightning.
- Num 16:28–35Then Moses said, “This is how you will know that the LORD has sent me to do all these things, for it was not my own doing:
- Isa 11:4but with righteousness He will judge the poor, and with equity He will decide for the lowly of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth and slay the wicked with the breath of His lips.
- Ps 18:8Smoke rose from His nostrils, and consuming fire came from His mouth; glowing coals blazed forth.
- Jer 1:10See, I have appointed you today over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and plant.”
- Zech 2:8For this is what the LORD of Hosts says: “After His Glory has sent Me against the nations that have plundered you—for whoever touches you touches the apple of His eye—
- Zech 1:6But did not My words and My statutes, which I commanded My servants the prophets, overtake your fathers? They repented and said, ‘Just as the LORD of Hosts purposed to do to us according to our ways and deeds, so He has done to us.’”
- Ezek 43:3The vision I saw was like the vision I had seen when He came to destroy the city and like the visions I had seen by the River Kebar. I fell facedown,
- Acts 9:4–5He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?”
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Christ at the center
Revelation ends the story with the slain-yet-standing Lamb who is worthy, the Lion of Judah, the Alpha and Omega, the returning King who makes all things new and dwells with his people forever.
How Revelation 11:5 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.