Dead Bodies in the Street

The covenant curse warned, "thy carcase shall be meat unto all fowls of the air" with none to fray them away (Deut 28:26), and a hanged body was not to remain overnight, for it was accursed (Deut 21:22-23). Asaph mourns that "the dead bodies of thy servants" were given to the birds, "and there was none to bury them" (Ps 79:2-3), while Esther's feast of deliverance was kept by "sending portions one to another" (Esth 9:22). Revelation 11:8-10 turns both images: the witnesses' bodies lie unburied in the street, the public disgrace of Yahuah's covenant testimony, and the world sends gifts in a counterfeit Purim. But the world celebrates too early: "when I fall, I shall arise" (Mic 7:8).