What does Revelation 11:12 mean?

Those who witness the resurrection of the two witnesses also hear a loud voice. The voice commands the witnesses to come up to heaven. Then the witnesses ascend to heaven in a cloud as their enemies look on. We may assume some of those who watch the ascent will have seen astronauts pass through earth's atmosphere in spacecraft. However, the witnesses' ascent into heaven involves a cloud—it will be unlike anything they've seen before.

Unlike the rapture of the church, the "rapture" of the two witnesses is a public event. Their dead bodies have been shown around the world as unbelievers celebrate their deaths (Revelation 11:7–10). Perhaps the cloud in which the witnesses ascend is the shekinah glory cloud that settled over the tabernacle and guided the Hebrews by day across the Negev (Exodus 40:34–38). Also, it may have been the cloud that received Jesus into heaven while His disciples looked on (Acts 1:9). By killing the two witnesses and letting their bodies lie in a street, unbelievers worldwide thought they had triumphed over them, but God shows who the real victors are by raising them up all the way to heaven.