Revelation 11:9
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. 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.
After the two witnesses are killed, people from peoples and kindreds and tongues and nations see their dead bodies lying exposed and unburied for three days and an half. The killer is the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit, which makes war against God's two witnesses, overcomes them, and kills them. The killing portrays the assault on and suppression of the Scriptures, with public rejoicing over their suppression during France's rejection of the Bible, bringing terrible results especially upon France under the domination of the man of sin. The verse stands within the forty and two months and the thousand two hundred and threescore days, which are the same time in which the church of Christ was to suffer oppression from Rome, the 1260 years of papal supremacy from A.D. 538 to 1798, ending when a French army entered Rome and made the pope a prisoner, after which the papal hierarchy never wielded its former power, with the persecution cut short in mercy through the Reformation before 1798. The three and a half days lead to the witnesses being restored to life.
The verse points to the temple of God opened in heaven with the ark of His testament seen inside, directing attention to the law of God covered by the mercy seat, into which angels look reverentially. It means light is shining on the fourth commandment, with God opening understanding to see Sabbath-breaking, making His people repositories of His law who must form characters in harmony with that law while drawing nearer to the solemn event of the Lord's appearing.
The whole eleventh chapter must be read every verse to learn and understand things that are yet to take place in the cities, and this verse is to be read together with the scenes portrayed in the eighteenth chapter. The verse gives God's special indications of a coming wonderful display of His power because of the sins of the cities, as seen in a city recently destroyed, which is His rebuke for abused privileges and wrongs done to fellow men, calling men to make amends and to hear His voice. Those who believe the prophecies must not ignore these indications or show indifference toward that rebuke or make light of them. They must not defiantly plan and invest to build greater buildings in the future, for God will exercise His power to counteract such efforts.