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And their bodies will lie in the main street of Jerusalem, the city that is figuratively called “Sodom” and “Egypt,” the city where their Lord was crucified.
Revelation 11:8 · New Living Translation
Parallel translations
  • WEB Their dead bodies will be in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified.
  • KJV And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.
  • BSB Their bodies will lie in the street of the great city—figuratively called Sodom and Egypt—where their Lord was also crucified.
  • NKJV And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.
  • NASB And their dead bodies will lie on the street of the great city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified.

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

Their bodies lie in the street of the great city, "spiritually" called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified. The world that killed Christ also rejects His witnesses.

Overview

The "great city" is identified symbolically with Sodom (immorality), Egypt (oppression), and Jerusalem (where Christ was crucified)—a composite of the world in its rebellion against God. Leaving the bodies unburied was a profound public disgrace in that culture. The reference to where "their Lord was crucified" ties the witnesses' suffering directly to Christ's. Those who follow Jesus share in the rejection He endured from a hostile world (John 15:18-20).

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 36

  • Jer 23:14In the prophets of Jerusalem also I have seen a horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies. They strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one returns from his wickedness. They have all become to me as Sodom, and its inhabitants as Gomorrah.”
  • Rev 18:10standing far away for the fear of her torment, saying, ‘Woe, woe, the great city, Babylon, the strong city! For your judgment has come in one hour.’
  • Heb 13:12Therefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people through his own blood, suffered outside of the gate.
  • Ezek 16:53–55“‘“I will turn again their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, and the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, and the captivity of your captives among them;
  • Rev 18:21A mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and cast it into the sea, saying, “Thus with violence will Babylon, the great city, be thrown down, and will be found no more at all.
  • 2 Pet 2:6and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly;
  • Jude 1:7Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them, having, in the same way as these, given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are shown as an example, suffering the punishment of eternal fire.
  • Amos 4:11“I have overthrown some of you, as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were like a burning stick plucked out of the fire; yet you haven’t returned to me,” says Yahweh.
  • Rev 18:18and cried out as they looked at the smoke of her burning, saying, ‘What is like the great city?’
  • Rev 11:9From among the peoples, tribes, languages, and nations people will look at their dead bodies for three and a half days, and will not allow their dead bodies to be laid in a tomb.
  • Matt 10:15Most certainly I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city.
  • Ezek 23:27Thus I will make your lewdness to cease from you, and remove your prostitution from the land of Egypt; so that you will not lift up your eyes to them, nor remember Egypt any more.’
  • Ezek 23:3They played the prostitute in Egypt. They played the prostitute in their youth. Their breasts were fondled there, and their youthful nipples were caressed there.
  • Ezek 23:8She hasn’t left her prostitution since leaving Egypt; for in her youth they lay with her. They carressed her youthful nipples; and they poured out their prostitution on her.
  • Exod 3:7Yahweh said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows.
  • Isa 1:9–10Unless Yahweh of Armies had left to us a very small remnant, we would have been as Sodom; we would have been like Gomorrah.
  • Gen 19:24Then Yahweh rained on Sodom and on Gomorrah sulfur and fire from Yahweh out of the sky.
  • Exod 20:2“I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
  • Luke 13:33–34Nevertheless I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the next day, for it can’t be that a prophet perish outside of Jerusalem.’
  • Gen 13:13Now the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinners against Yahweh.
  • Ezek 23:19Yet she multiplied her prostitution, remembering the days of her youth, in which she had played the prostitute in the land of Egypt.
  • Isa 3:9The look of their faces testify against them. They parade their sin like Sodom. They don’t hide it. Woe to their soul! For they have brought disaster upon themselves.
  • Rev 16:19The great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. Babylon the great was remembered in the sight of God, to give to her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.
  • Rev 14:8Another, a second angel, followed, saying, “Babylon the great has fallen, which has made all the nations to drink of the wine of the wrath of her sexual immorality.”
  • Rev 11:13In that day there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified, and gave glory to the God of heaven.
  • Ps 78:43–51how he set his signs in Egypt, his wonders in the field of Zoan,
  • Acts 9:4He fell on the earth, and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”
  • Rev 18:2He cried with a mighty voice, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, and she has become a habitation of demons, a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird!
  • Heb 6:6and then fell away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance; seeing they crucify the Son of God for themselves again, and put him to open shame.
  • Ps 79:2–3They have given the dead bodies of your servants to be food for the birds of the sky, the flesh of your saints to the animals of the earth.
  • Exod 1:13–14The Egyptians ruthlessly made the children of Israel serve,
  • Jer 26:23and they fetched Uriah out of Egypt, and brought him to Jehoiakim the king, who killed him with the sword, and cast his dead body into the graves of the common people.
  • Rev 18:24In her was found the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all who have been slain on the earth.”
  • Rev 17:1One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with me, saying, “Come here. I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute who sits on many waters,
  • Ezek 37:11Then he said to me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are clean cut off.
  • Rev 17:5And on her forehead a name was written, “MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF THE PROSTITUTES AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.”

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (2)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Revelation videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Revelation 11:8YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on RevelationMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

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 11:8 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.