First Reading

I, John, heard a voice from heaven speak to me:

Here are my two witnesses:

These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands

that stand before the Lord of the earth.

If anyone wants to harm them, fire comes out of their mouths

and devours their enemies.

In this way, anyone wanting to harm them is sure to be slain.

They have the power to close up the sky

so that no rain can fall during the time of their prophesying.

They also have power to turn water into blood

and to afflict the earth with any plague as often as they wish.

When they have finished their testimony,

the beast that comes up from the abyss

will wage war against them and conquer them and kill them.

Their corpses will lie in the main street of the great city,

which has the symbolic names “Sodom” and “Egypt,”

where indeed their Lord was crucified.

Those from every people, tribe, tongue, and nation

will gaze on their corpses for three and a half days,

and they will not allow their corpses to be buried.

The inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them

and be glad and exchange gifts

because these two prophets tormented the inhabitants of the earth.

But after the three and a half days,

a breath of life from God entered them.

When they stood on their feet, great fear fell on those who saw them.

Then they heard a loud voice from heaven say to them, “Come up here.”

So they went up to heaven in a cloud as their enemies looked on.