5. And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth,
and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in
this manner be killed.

6. 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.

Vs. 4-6.--"These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks,"
answerable to Joshua and Zerubbabel, the representatives of a gospel
ministry and a scriptural magistracy in their day, as seen by the
prophet Zechariah, (ch. iv. 14.) The official administrators of the
divine ordinances of church and state, require the oil of divine grace
to qualify them for the discharge of their responsible duties to God and
man. (1 Tim. i. 2; Titus i. 4; Ps. lxxii. 1.) Thus were those public
servants of God and of his people qualified who "stood before the God of
the earth," as Moses and Aaron in Egypt, Elijah and Elisha in Israel, to
whom there is obvious allusion in the special work of these witnesses.
(2 Kings i. 10; 1 Kings xvii. 1; Exod. vii. 17.) "Fire proceedeth out of
their mouth," when from the scriptures they denounce just judgments upon
the impenitent enemies of him whom they represent. They "smite the earth
with all plagues," when, in answer to their prayers, vengeance comes
upon antichristian communities. (Luke xviii. 7, 8.) They "turn waters
into blood," when through their effective agency, the votaries of
Antichrist are made the instruments of mutual destruction. And all this
is made more clear in the symbolic "vials," (ch. 16.) These witnesses
"prophesy," not as being inspired, but because they,--and _they only_,
apply existing predictions to their appropriate objects, so far as they
receive light from Him who is "the light of the world."