11:11 The breath of life from God will revive the witnesses' dead bodies (cf. Gen. 6:17; 7:15, 22; 2 Kings 13:20-21; Ezek. 37:5, 10). Their resurrections will terrify onlookers because these God-haters could do no more to silence their enemies than kill them. The use of the prophetic present tense in the verbs in this verse pictures what is future as already fact.
11:12 The witnesses, and probably those beholding them before they ascend, will hear the "voice from heaven."It probably belongs to Jesus Christ (cf. 4:1). "The cloud"evidently refers to the shekinah in which Jesus Christ ascended (Acts 1:9). Their ascension is also similar to that of Elijah (2 Kings 2:11) and to Christians at the Rapture (1 Thess. 4:17). In the case of the two witnesses, their enemies will watch them ascend.
One writer who believed the witnesses stand for all Christians wrote as follows.
"In the fullest sense this is to be fulfilled in the rapture Paul describes (1 Thes. iv. 17)."370
11:13 Following this ascension an earthquake (cf. 6:12; 8:5; 11:19; 16:18; Matt. 27:51-52; 28:2) will destroy 10 percent of Jerusalem and will cause 7,000 people to die.371Those who will not die will give glory to God. This does not necessarily mean that they will all become believers,372but they will acknowledge God's hand in these events at least.373Perhaps they only give glory to God as the demons gave glory to Jesus when He confronted them during His earthly ministry.
