11:2 forty-two months. A time of distress and intense conflict between God’s people and their opponents (13:5). It is also described as 1,260 days (v. 3; 12:6) or “a time, and times, and half a time” (i.e., three and a half years, 12:14). It is half of seven years, which from a symbolic point of view suggests a complete period of suffering, cut short by half. The main background is found in Dan. 7:25, which in turn is related to other passages (Dan. 9:27; 12:7, 11, 12). Some futurist interpreters look for a period of time of this length shortly before the Second Coming. But like other numbers in Revelation, this one may be symbolic in character, relating to the three and a half days in vv. 9, 11. It would then designate a persecution of limited length.