Ever since the time of those eminent witnesses, the same testimony has been maintained.  It is not yet finished, the witnesses are yet alive, and the term of 1260 years is not expired.

7.  And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit, shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.

8.  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.

9.  And they of the people, and kindreds, and tongues, and nations, shall see their dead bodies three days and a half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves.

10.  And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth.

Vs. 7-10.—­In these verses we have described the death of the witnesses, as also the agent mentioned, by whom the fatal stroke is given.  As future occasion will occur for identifying this bloody tyrant, ascertaining with precision his diabolical origin, here only hinted, his crimes and his awful doom, it is premature to amplify in this place.

If the witnesses cannot be identified, neither can the time of their death be ascertained.  We find indeed among expositors as many vague notions relative to the time and the nature of their death as in relation to their identity.  These notions are unworthy of notice; for however they might amuse, they cannot edify.

Four questions are suggested by these verses.—­By whom; in what manner, when, and where are the witnesses slain?

The first question is explicitly answered in the sacred text.  The “beast,” of hellish origin, kills them.  But it will afterwards appear that the beast is instigated to this relentless cruelty by another agent of the devil.  Again, as to the kind of death, we may in good measure learn this from the kind of life.  Now it is obvious that to give testimony, or “prophesy” during the allotted time, constitutes their life.  They live, that they may prophesy.  Hence it is usual to speak of silencing, as equivalent to slaying these witnesses.  But this is not strictly correct.  Why?  Because they have been hitherto “killed all the day long.” (Ps. xliv. 22; Rom. viii. 36.) Doubtless defection and apostacy do always accompany persecution; and thus the testimony of such is silenced.  But the enemy in this case is “drunken with the blood” of these witnesses; and this phrase must be understood literally.  Moreover, the enemy gets “blood to drink,” because of “shedding blood.” (ch. xvi. 6; xvii. 6.) The death of the witnesses is therefore a literal death, of course it will be also moral,—­they will cease to prophesy.

Some have supposed the “three years, or days and a half,” during which the witnesses lie dead are the same as the 1260 days or years; because if these three and a half days be considered as prophetical, and reduced to literal days, they will amount exactly to 1260.  Such an interpretation, however, is preposterous; simply because according to this hypothesis, they never lived at all!—­The absurdity is evident.