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.
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.
- BSB 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.
- 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 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.
- Rev 17:15He said to me, “The waters which you saw, where the prostitute sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations, and languages.
- Rev 11:11After the three and a half days, the breath of life from God entered into them, and they stood on their feet. Great fear fell on those who saw them.
- Rev 11:2–3Leave out the court which is outside of the temple, and don’t measure it, for it has been given to the nations. They will tread the holy city under foot for forty-two months.
- Rev 10:11They told me, “You must prophesy again over many peoples, nations, languages, and kings.”
- Rev 13:7It was given to him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them. Authority over every tribe, people, language, and nation was given to him.
- Eccl 6:3If a man fathers a hundred children, and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is not filled with good, and moreover he has no burial; I say, that a stillborn child is better than he:
- Matt 7:2For with whatever judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with whatever measure you measure, it will be measured to you.
- Rev 19:17–18I saw an angel standing in the sun. He cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in the sky, “Come! Be gathered together to the great supper of God,
- Jer 7:33The dead bodies of this people shall be food for the birds of the sky, and for the animals of the earth; and no one shall frighten them away.
- Isa 33:1Woe to you who destroy, but you weren’t destroyed; and who betray, but nobody betrayed you! When you have finished destroying, you will be destroyed; and when you have finished betrayal, you will be betrayed.
- Rev 5:8Now when he had taken the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each one having a harp, and 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
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