Charles Ellicott Commentary Revelation 11:7

"And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that cometh up out of the abyss shall make war with them, and overcome them, and kill them." — Revelation 11:7 (ASV)

And when ...—Better, And when they have finished their testimony, the wild beast that goes up out of the abyss will make war with them, and conquer them, and kill them.

Only when their work is done does the wild beast have power over them. To everyone there are the symbolic twelve hours in which their life’s work must be achieved; to everyone there is the time secured when they may accomplish for God what God sent them to fulfill: then, but not until then, the night comes, when no one can work.

The wild beast: We will hear much of this wild beast later on. Here we are told distinctly that the wild beast will have its hour of triumph; it rises out of the abyss, as the locust horde did (Revelation 9:1–2). There is, then, a beast-spirit which is in utter hostility to the Christ-spirit. We will be able to study the features of this power in a future chapter (Revelation 13:1); here it is seen to be a spirit of irreconcilable antagonism to Christ.

The image here is not new; Daniel made use of it (Daniel 7), though in a much more limited sense. This beast-power vanquishes the witnesses.

If the witnesses are those who have taught the principles of a spiritual and social religion, the death of the witnesses following their overthrow signifies the triumph of opposing principles—the silencing of those who have withstood the growing current of evil.

Men can silence, can conquer, can slay the witness for a higher, purer, nobler life. They have done so.

The history of the world is often the history of the postponement of moral and social advancement for centuries through the wild outbreak of some brutal, irrational, selfish spirit. The Reformers, the best friends of the Church and of the world, have been silenced and slain, and their death has often been little more than the triumph of the ignorance and selfishness of a practical heathenism.