In verses 5-6 the two witnesses were set forth in this temple vision as both the light of the world and the protectors of the temple. “If any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth . . . he must in this manner be killed.” No power would be able to prevail against the two witnesses until their work was done. “ These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will.” The figurative phrase to shut heaven that it rain not signifies the restraining of the civil powers to prevent and destroy the work of the witnesses. The power of the witnesses over the waters to turn them to blood and to smite the earth with all plagues were figurative descriptions of the calamities that would follow the testimony of the witnesses to the ultimate destruction of their persecutors. The days of the prophesying of the two witnesses defined the same period as the days of the voice of the seventh angel. (Chapter 10:7) In one the mystery should be finished, in the other they finished their testimony. During this period no power could prevail over them. It was that interval in which the angel of chapter 7 gave command to “ hurt not . . . till we have sealed the servants of God.” If any man willed to hurt them, initiated action against them, he must in this manner be killed--he would be destroyed in the manner that verse 5 describes, by the “ fire” proceeding “ out of their mouths” which “ devoureth their enemies.” These were the symbols of divine judgment against the persecutors of witnesses and the opponents of their testimony (verse 7), and it followed the same figures of speech of the threatened judgments of Christ to the seven churches in chapters 2 and 3.