Who are the “two witnesses” of Revelation 11:1-14?

TWO THOUGHTS TO PONDER:

Every once in a while, someone suggests that the “two witnesses” of Revelation 11:1-14 are (and I quote) "Judah and Israel/Ephraim".

FIRST, in my opinion, those two witnesses could NOT be any of the “tribes” (why would they?) because "tribes" consist of fallible, mortal people who live and die and decay. Wouldn’t it make more sense for the “witnesses” to be the Torah and the Prophecies? Unlike “tribes” which have undergone some rearranging over the millennia, neither Torah nor the Prophetic Words of YHWH can ever be changed, ignored or annulled.

They ARE the two ACTUAL witnesses that stand as One. The Word of YHWH is both Torah (instruction in righteousness) and Prophecy declaring, foretelling and revealing the Will of YHWH to each generation. (See Deuteronomy 4:2; 13:1.)

SECONDLY, why do we keep seeing people posting “Israel/Ephraim” as if it’s one entity? They make it seem as if all of Israel consists only of Ephraim - which was simply a tribe of lesser importance ... matter of fact, it was actually just a HALF-tribe!

As I wrote above, there have been some changes made in certain tribes since we first saw the original 12 outlined in passages such as Genesis 35 and Deuteronomy 27:12–13.

But Revelation 7:1-8 lists the actual twelve tribes whose names are written on the City Gates of the New Jerusalem. And from what I can see, there is NO “Ephraim” gate!

Take a look at Revelation 7:1-8 ….

• Judah

• Reuben

• Gad

• Asher

• Naphtali

• Manasseh

• Simeon

• Levi

• Issachar

• Zebulun

• Joseph

• Benjamin

We see the other "half-tribe" of Manasseh included there, but the other "half-tribe", Ephraim, is nowhere to be found in that list...

Your thoughts?