For three and a half days all peoples and tribes and tongues and nations will view their bodies and will not permit them to be laid in a tomb.
Parallel translations
- WEB From 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.
- KJV And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves.
- NKJV Then those from the peoples, tribes, tongues, and nations will see their dead bodies three-and-a-half days, and not allow their dead bodies to be put into graves.
- NASB Those from the peoples, tribes, languages, and nations 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.
- NLT And for three and a half days, all peoples, tribes, languages, and nations will stare at their bodies. No one will be allowed to bury them.
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
People from every nation gaze on the corpses for three and a half days, refusing burial. The world publicly gloats over the apparent defeat of God's witnesses.
Overview
The global audience (peoples, tribes, languages, nations) shows the worldwide hostility to the church's testimony. Denying burial heaps shame on the dead and expresses the world's contempt. The brief three and a half days mirror the three and a half years of witness, a short span of seeming triumph for evil. Yet the very brevity foreshadows that this gloating will not last, for vindication is near.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Ps 79:2–3They have given the corpses of Your servants as food to the birds of the air, the flesh of Your saints to the beasts of the earth.
- Rev 17:15Then the angel said to me, “The waters you saw, where the prostitute was seated, are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues.
- Rev 11:11But after the three and a half days, the breath of life from God entered the two witnesses, and they stood on their feet, and great fear fell upon those who saw them.
- Rev 11:2–3But exclude the courtyard outside the temple. Do not measure it, because it has been given over to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for 42 months.
- Rev 10:11And they told me, “You must prophesy again about many peoples and nations and tongues and kings.”
- Rev 13:7Then the beast was permitted to wage war against the saints and to conquer them, and it was given authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation.
- Eccl 6:3A man may father a hundred children and live for many years; yet no matter how long he lives, if he is unsatisfied with his prosperity and does not even receive a proper burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he.
- Matt 7:2For with the same judgment you pronounce, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
- Rev 19:17–18Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried out in a loud voice to all the birds flying overhead, “Come, gather together for the great supper of God,
- Jer 7:33The corpses of this people will become food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and there will be no one to scare them away.
- Isa 33:1Woe to you, O destroyer never destroyed, O traitor never betrayed! When you have finished destroying, you will be destroyed. When you have finished betraying, you will be betrayed.
- Rev 5:8When He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp, and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 11:9 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.