These are they who spoke the Word of God faithfully in the face of Babylon’s anti-God attitude (Revelation 11:3, Revelation 11:7). We may think of Old Testament prophets who died for the faith (Matthew 23:35), New Testament apostles as Peter and Paul, and indeed preachers over the centuries whose message was rejected through an act of murder. Ironically, as Babylon sought to manipulate the deity, she killed the messengers when the living God sent his Word, for these messengers stood in the way of her goals.
24 And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all who have been slain on earth.”