And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.
The Third Seal, Rev 6:5-6
5. a pair of balances ] The primary meaning of the word is a yoke: but no doubt the A. V. is right, as what follows proves that scarcity rather than oppression is to be symbolised. The sense is, that mankind shall be placed on limited rations of bread, like the people of a besieged city; as in Lev 26:26; Eze 4:16.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And when he had opened the third seal – Unfolding another portion of the volume. See the notes on Rev 5:1.
I heard the third beast say, Come and see – See the notes on Rev 4:7. It is not apparent why the third beast is represented as taking a particular interest in the opening of this seal (compare the notes on Rev 6:3), nor is it necessary to show why it was so. The general design seems to have been, to represent each one of the four living creatures as interested in the opening of the seals, but the order in which they did this does not seem to be a matter of importance.
And I beheld, and lo, a black horse – The specifications of the symbol here are the following:
(a) As before, the horse. See the notes on Rev 6:2.
(b) The color of the horse: lo, a black horse. This would properly denote distress and calamity – for black has been regarded always as such a symbol. So Virgil speaks of fear as black: atrumque timorem (Aen. ix. 619). So again, Georg. iv. 468:
Caligantem nigra formidine lucum.
So, as applied to the dying Acca, Aeneas xi. 825:
Tenebris nigrescunt omnia circum.
Black, in the Scriptures, is the image of fear, of famine, of death. Lam 5:10; our skin was black like an oven, because of the terrible famine. Jer 14:2; because of the drought Judah mourneth, and the gates thereof languish; they are in deep mourning (literally, black) for the land. Joe 2:6; all faces shall gather blackness. Nah 2:10; the knees smite together, and there is great pain in all loins, and the faces of them all gather blackness. Compare Rev 6:12; Eze 32:7. See also Bochart, Hieroz. P. i. lib. ii. c. vii. pp. 106, 107. From the color of the horse here introduced we should naturally look for some dire calamity, though the nature of the calamity would not be designated by the mere use of the word black. What the calamity was to be must be determined by what follows in the symbol. Famine, pestiilence, oppression, heavy taxation, tyranny, invasion – any of these might be denoted by the color of the horse.
(c) The balances: and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. The original word rendered here as a pair of balances, is zugon. This word properly means a yoke, serving to couple anything together, as a yoke for cattle. Hence it is used to denote the beam of a balance, or of a pair of scales – and is evidently so used here. The idea is, that something was to be weighed, in order to ascertain either its quantity or its value. Scales or balances are the emblems of justice or equity (compare Job 31:6; Psa 62:9; Pro 11:1; Pro 16:11); and when joined with symbols that denote the sale of grain and fruit by weight, become the symbol of scarcity. Thus, bread by weight Lev 26:26 denotes scarcity. So in Eze 4:16, And they shall eat bread by weight. The use of balances here as a symbol would signify that something was to be accurately and carefully weighed out.
The connection leads us to suppose that this would pertain to the necessaries of life, and that it would occur either in consequence of scarcity, or because there would be an accurate or severe exaction, as in collecting a revenue on these articles. The balance was commonly the symbol of equity and justice; but it was also, sometimes, the symbol of exaction and oppression, as in Hos 12:7; The balance of deceit is in his hands; he loveth to oppress. If the balances stood alone, and there were no proclamation as to what was to occur, we should look, under this seal, to a time of the exact administration of justice, as scales or balances are now used as emblems of the rigid application of the laws and of the principles of justice in courts, or in public affairs. If this representation stood alone, or if the black horse and the scales constituted the whole of the symbol, we should look for some severe administration, or perhaps some heavy calamity under a rigorous administration of laws. The reference, however, to the wheat and barley, and to the price for which they were to be weighed out, serves still further to limit and define the meaning of the symbol as having reference to the necessaries of life – to the productions of the land – to the actual capital of the country. Whether this refers to scarcity, or to taxation, or both, must be determined by the other parts of the symbol.
(d) The proclamation: And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say. That is, from the throne, Rev 4:6. The voice was not that of one of the four beasts, but it seemed to come from among them. As the rider went forth, this was the proclamation that was made in regard to him; or this is what is symbolized in his going forth, to wit, that there would be such a state of things that a measure of wheat would be sold for a penny, etc. The proclamation consists essentially of two things – what refers to the price or value of wheat and barley, and what requires that care shall be taken not to injure the oil and the wine. Each of these demands explanation.
A measure of wheat for a penny – See the margin. The word rendered measure – choinix – denotes an Attic measure for grain and things dry, equal to the 48th part of the Attic medimnus, or the 8th part of the Roman modius, and consequently was nearly equivalent to one quart English (Robinsons Lexicon). The word rendered penny, denarion – Latin, denarius – was of the same value as the Greek drachme, and was equivalent to about fourteen cents or seven-pence (circa mid-19th century). This was the usual price of a days labor, Mat 20:2, Mat 20:9. The choenix, or measure of grain here referred to, was the ordinary daily allowance for one man (Odyssey xix. 27, 28). See Stuart, in loco. The common price of the Attic medimnus of wheat was five or six denarii; but here, as that contained 48 choenixes or quarts, the price would be augmented to 48 denarii – or it would be about eight times as dear as ordinary; that is, there would be a scarcity or famine. The price of a bushel of wheat at this rate would be about four dollars and a half or 18 shillings – a price which would indicate great scarcity, and which would give rise to much distress.
And three measures of barley for a penny – It would seem from this that barley usually bore about one-third the price of wheat. It was a less valuable grain, and perhaps was produced in greater abundance. This is not far from the proportion which the price of this grain usually bears to that of wheat, and here, as in the case of the wheat, the thing which would be indicated would be scarcity. This proclamation of a measure of wheat for a penny was heard either as addressed to the horseman, as a rule of action for him, or as addressed by the horseman as he went forth. If the former is the meaning, it would be an appropriate address to one who was going forth to collect tribute – with reference to the exact manner in which this tribute was to be collected, implying some sort of severity of exaction; or to one who should distribute wheat and barley out of the public granaries at an advanced price, indicating scarcity. Thus, it would mean that a severe and heavy tax – represented by the scales and the scarcity – or a tax so severe as to make grain dear, was referred to. If the latter is the meaning, then the idea is that there would be a scarcity, and that grain would be dealt out by the government at a high and oppressive price. The latter idea would be as consonant with the symbol of the scales and the price mentioned as the other, if it were not for the additional injunction not to hurt the oil and the wine – which cannot be well applied to the idea of dealing out grain at a high price. It can, however, be connected, by a fair interpretation of that passage, with such a severity of taxation that there would be a propriety in such a command – for, as we shall see, under the explanation of that phrase, such a law was actually promulgated as resulting from severity of taxation. The idea, then, in the passage before us, would seem to be:
(a) that there would be a rigid administration of the law in regard to the matter under consideration-that pertaining to the productions of the earth – represented by the balances; and,
(b) that that would be connected with general scarcity, or such an exercise of this power as to determine the price of grain, so that the price would be some three times greater than ordinary.
And see thou hurt not the oil and the wine – There has been a great variety of interpretations proposed of this passage, and it is by no means easy to determine the true sense. The first inquiry in regard to it is, to whom is it addressed? Perhaps the most common impression on reading it would be, that it is addressed to the horseman with the balances, commanding him not to injure the oliveyards and the vineyards. But this is not probably the correct view. It does not appear that the horseman goes forth to destroy anything, or that the effect of his going forth is directly to injure anything. This, therefore, should not be understood as addressed to the horseman, but should be regarded as a general command to any and all not to injure the oliveyards and vineyards; that is, an order that nothing should be done essentially to injure them. If thus regarded as addressed to others, a fair and congruous meaning would be furnished by either of the following interpretations: either:
(a) considered as addressed to those who were disposed to be prodigal in their manner of living, or careless as to the destruction of the crop of the oil and wine, as they would now be needed; or.
(b) as addressed to those who raised such productions, on the supposition that they would be taxed heavily, or that large quantities of these productions would be extorted for revenue, that they. should not mutilate their fruit-trees in order to evade the taxes imposed by the government. In regard to the things specified here – oil and wine – it may be remarked, that they were hardly considered as articles of luxury in ancient times. They were almost as necessary articles as wheat and barley. They constituted a considerable part of the food and drink of the people, as well as furnished a large portion of the revenue, and it would seem to be with reference to that fact that the command here is given that they should not be injured; that is, that nothing should be done to diminish the quantity of oil and wine, or to impair the productive power of oliveyards and vineyards. The state of things thus described by this seal, as thus interpreted, would be:
(a)A rigid administration of the laws of the empire, particularly in reference to taxation, producing a scarcity among the necessary articles of living;
(b)A strong tendency, from the severity of the taxation, to mutilate such kinds of property, with a view either of concealing the real amount of property, or of diminishing the amount of taxes; and,
(c)A solemn command from some authoritative quarter not to do this.
A command from the ruling power not to do this would meet all that would be fairly demanded in the interpretation of the passage; and what is necessary in its application, is to find such a state of things as would correspond with these predictions; that is, such as a writer would have described by such symbols on the supposition that they were referred to.
Now it so happens that there were important events which occurred in the Roman empire, and connected with its decline and fall, of sufficient importance to be noticed in a series of calamitous events, which corresponded with the symbol here, as above explained. They were such as these:
(a) The general severity of taxation, or the oppressive burdens laid on the people by the emperors. In the account which Mr. Gibbon gives of the operation of the Indictions, and Superindictions, though the specific laws on this subject pertained to a subsequent period, the general nature of the taxation of the empire and its oppressive character may be seen (Decline and Fall, i. 357-359). A general estimate of the amount of revenue to be exacted was made out, and the collecting of this was committed to the pretorian prefects, and to a great number of subordinate officers. The lands were measured by surveyors who were sent into the provinces; their nature, whether arable, or pasture, or woods, was distinctly reported; and an estimate made of their common value, from the average produce of five years. The number of slaves and of cattle constituted an essential part of the report; an oath was administered to the proprietors, which bound them to disclose the true state of their affairs; and their attempts to prevaricate or elude the intention of the legislature were severely watched, and punished as a capital crime, which included the double guilt of treason and of sacrilege. According to the different nature of lands, their real produce in the various articles of wine or oil, grain or barley, wood or iron, was transported by the labor or at the expense of the provincials to the imperial magazines, from whence they were occasionally distributed for the use of the court or of the army, and of the two capitals, Rome and Constantinople, i. p. 358. Compare Lactant. de mort. Persecut., c. 23.
(b) The particular order, under this oppressive system of taxation, respecting the preservation of vineyards and oliveyards, may be referred to, also, as corresponding to the command sent forth under this rider, not to hurt the oil and the wine. That order was in the following words: If anyone shall sacrilegiously cut a vine, or stint the fruit of prolific boughs, and craftily feign poverty in order to avoid a fair assessment, he shall, immediately on detection, suffer death, and his property be confiscated (Cod. Theod. l. xiii. lib. xi. seq.; Gibbon, i. 358, note). Mr. Gibbon remarks: Although this law is not without its studied obscurity, it is, however, clear enough to prove the minuteness of the inquisition, and the disproportion of the penalty.
(c) Under this general subject of the severity of taxation – as a fact farspreading and oppressive, and as so important as to hasten the downfall of the empire, may be noticed a distinct edict of Caracalla as occurring more directly in the period in which the rider with the balances may be supposed to have gone forth. This is stated by Mr. Gibbon (i. 91) as one of the important causes which contributed to the downfall of the empire. The personal characters of the emperors, their victories, laws, and fortunes, says he, can interest us no further than they are connected with the general history of the decline and fall of the monarchy. Our constant attention to that object will not suffer us to overlook a most important edict of Antoninus Caracalla, which communicated to all the free inhabitants of the empire the name and privileges of Roman citizens. His unbounded liberality, however, flowed not from the sentiments of a generous mind; it was the sordid result of avarice, etc.
He then proceeds at length to state the nature and operations of that law, by which a heavy tax, under the pretence of liberality, was in fact imposed on all the citizens of the empire – a fact which, in its ultimate results, the historian of the Decline and Fall regards as so closely connected with the termination of the empire. See Gibbon, i. pp. 91-95. After noticing the laws of Augustus, Nero, and the Antonines, and the real privileges conferred by them on those who became entitled to the rank of Roman citizens – privileges which were a compensation in the honor, dignity, and offices of that rank for the measure of taxation which it involved – he proceeds to notice the fact that the title of Roman citizen was conferred by Caracalla on all the free citizens of the empire, involving the subjection to all the heavy taxes usually imposed on those who sustained the rank expressed by the title, but with nothing of the compensation connected with the title when it was confined to the inhabitants of Italy. But the favor, says he, which implied a distinction, was lost in the prodigality of Caracalla, and the reluctant provincials were compelled to assume the vain title, and the real obligations, of Roman citizens. Nor was the rapacious son of Severus (Caracalla) contented with such a measure of taxation as had appeared sufficient to his moderate predecessors. Instead of a twentieth, he exacted a tenth of all legacies and inheritances; and during his reign he crushed alike every part of the empire under the weight of his iron scepter, (i. 95).
So again (Ibid.), speaking of the taxes which had been lightened somewhat by Alexander, Mr. Gibbon remarks: It is impossible to conjecture the motive that engaged him to spare so trifling a remnant of the evil; but the noxious weed, which had not been totally eradicated, again sprung up with the most luxuriant growth, and in the succeeding age darkened the Roman world with its deadly shade. In the course of this history we shall be too often summoned to explain the land-tax, the capitation, and the heavy contributions of grain, wine, oil, and meat, which were exacted from the provinces for the use of the court, the army, and the capital. In reference to this whole matter of taxation as being one of the things which contributed to the downfall of the empire, and which spread woe through the falling empire – a woe worthy to be illustrated by one of the seals – a confirmation may be delayed from the reign of Galerius, who, as Caesar, acted under the authority of Diocletian; who excited Diocletian to the work of persecution (Decline and Fall, i. 317, 318); and who, on the abdication of Diocletian, assumed the title of Augustus (Decline and Fall, i. 222).
Of his administration in general Mr. Gibbon i. 226) remarks: About that time the avarice of Galerius, or perhaps the exigencies of the state, had induced him to make a very strict and rigorous inquisition into the property of his subjects for the purpose of a general taxation, both on their lands and on their persons. A very minute survey appears to have been taken of their real estates; and wherever there was the slightest suspicion of concealment, torture was very freely employed to obtain a sincere declaration of their personal wealth. Of the nature of this exaction under Galerius; of the cruelty with which the measure was prosecuted – particularly in its bearing on Christians, toward whom Galerius cherished a mortal enmity (Decline and Fall, i. 317); and of the extent and severity of the suffering among Christians and others, caused by it – the following account of Lactantius (De Mort. Persecut., c. 23) will furnish a painful but most appropriate illustration: Swarms of exacters sent into the provinces and cities filled them with agitation and terror, as though a conquering enemy were leading them into captivity. The fields were separately measured, the trees and vines, the flocks and herds numbered, and an examination made of the people. In the cities the cultivated and rude were united as of the same rank. The streets were crowded with groups of families, and every one required to appear with his children and slaves. Tortures and lashes resounded on every side. Sons were gibbeted in the presence of their parents, and the most confidential servants harassed that they might make disclosures against their masters, and wives that they might testify unfavorably of their husbands. If there were a total destitution of property, they were still tortured to make acknowledgments against themselves, and, when overcome by pain, inscribed for what they did not possess.
Neither age nor ill-health was admitted as an excuse for not appearing. The sick and weak were borne to the place of inscription, a reckoning made of the age of each, and years added to the young and deducted from the old, in order to subject them to a higher taxation than the law imposed. The whole scene was filled with wailing and sadness. In the meantime individuals died, and the herds and the flocks diminished, yet tribute was none the less required to be paid for the dead, so that it was no longer allowed either to live or die without a tax. Mendicants alone escaped, where nothing could be wrenched, and whom misfortune and misery had made incapable of further oppression. These the impious wretch affecting to pity, that they might not suffer want, ordered to be assembled, borne off in vessels, and plunged into the sea. See Lord on the Apoc., pp. 128, 129. These facts in regard to the severity of taxation, and the rigid nature of the law enforcing it; to the sources of the revenue exacted in the provinces, and to the care that none of those sources should be diminished; and to the actual and undoubted bearing of all this on the decline and fall of the empire, are so strikingly applicable to the symbol here employed, that if it be supposed that it was intended to refer to them, no more natural or expressive symbol could have been used; if it were supposed that the historian meant to make a record of the fulfillment, he could not well have made a search which would more strikingly accord with the symbol.
Were we now to represent these things by a symbol, we could scarcely find one that would be more expressive than that of a rider on a black horse with a pair of scales, sent forth under a proclamation which indicated that there would be a most rigid and exact administration of severe and oppressive laws, and with a special command, addressed to the people, not for the purposes of concealment, or from opposition to the government, to injure the sources of revenue. It may serve further to illustrate this, to copy one of the usual emblems of a Roman procurator or questor. It is taken from Spanheim, De Usu Num. Diss., vi. 545. See Elliott, i. 169. It has a balance as a symbol of exactness or justice, and an car of grain as a symbol employed with reference to procuring or exacting grain from the provinces.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Rev 6:5-6
A black horse; a pair of balances.
The cry of the world in want
It is a vision of scarcity, of insufficiency, not of absolute famine. The world does not seem to contain enough for all, and there happens a continual struggle for the bare necessaries of bodily life. Every year this is becoming more evident. Most present-day problems have their roots in it, and these problems press with such terrible force upon us that, I suppose, St. Johns vision can never have seemed more picturesquely true than it seems to-day. With our constantly growing popula-ion, the difficulty increases by leaps and bounds. The effect of it is an absorbing anxiety, a restless elaboration of contrivance–How can these present difficulties be overcome? and what new ones will start into sight when the old ones have disappeared?–till a large part of life seems taken up by the problem of how to live. Is any precept of Christ harder than this, Take no thought for your life, etc. Perhaps if we were alone, with nothing but our own personal salvation to think about, it would be easier. But you are not alone. Others depend on you. Husband, think of your wife; think of the children whose future depends so much on you. And if we go down in social life to the lowest depths of poverty, the struggle for existence becomes piteous. It is terrible to face it, but it is well to face it sometimes. In this abyss, insufficiency has become destitution; the struggle has lost all that it seemed to have of manliness and force; it has deformed life into a chaos of brute instincts; it has become parent of crime, disease, and death. Such is the vision of human want. And from the living creatures before Gods throne the appeal is made to Jesus Christ, Come! What is it, this appeal to the Lamb as it had been slain? It is for manifestation of the higher life, the true life, the eternal life which is the knowledge of the true God and Jesus Christ. Sometimes the least spiritually impressionable person is forced to see that there is indeed a higher life. The pressure of earthly things relaxes its hold upon you for a moment; above the ceaseless clamour of the worlds voices the voice of Jesus makes its way to your heart, never lessening its claim upon your life, never taking from the promise its consolation, Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls. Yes, there is indeed a higher life. But it seems so hard of attainment in the life that I am living now. I am in the shadow of the black horseman; I am a sharer in the great struggle for existence. The thought of the higher life is wearisome; the life of prayer, of hourly communion with a Divine Friend, the life of the love of God, of joy in the knowledge of His presence and love, the life of glad obedience, of patient endurance. It all seems so hopeless. We cannot think of higher things. Is not this true of you? The struggle for existence makes us slaves in spirit. Surely the appeal from the living creatures to Christ is wanted for us to-day: Come, with Thy knowledge of the Fathers will. Come, with Thy strong rejoicing in the Fathers love. Come, with Thy unfaltering obedience. Come, with Thy victorious endurance. Let Thine be the Spirit which takes possession of a world in want, O Thou Lamb of God! (A. H. Simms, M. A.)
Scarcity in Gospel times
This vision has been explained in two ways, naturally and spiritually, and either yields a tolerably good signification. Both explanations are consonant with what we gather from the rest of the seals, which is, that much in the time of the Messiahs triumphal progress is not such as we should have expected.
1. We should have expected that the times of the Gospel would have been times of almost universal prosperity. So it had been prophesied (Eze 36:30; Hos 2:22; Joe 2:19). And we should the rather have expected this, because the preaching of the gospel does much to discourage many vices which occasion distress and ruin in this world, such as intemperance, drunkenness, wastefulness, gambling, immorality, etc. But it has not been so. From the first preaching of the gospel there has been just the same hard struggle for sustenance as there was before. Of course there have been countries in which the poor have not suffered from comparative scarcity, as in newly-planted colonies, but the tendency of things has been always to bring about, sooner or later, the universal struggle for a bare subsistence.
2. But the riding of this horse-rider has been interpreted spiritually to mean this, that in the day of Christs power there has not been, nor will be, that plentiful supply of the wholesome and nourishing Word of God which we should have expected. The more thoroughly we examine the history of religion, I do not mean of the Church, but of individual religion, the more we shall discover the truth of this. For well nigh 1,500 years the Word of God has been altogether out of the reach of the vast majority of Christians. Till the invention of printing each copy had to be written fully and fairly out. And look also at the comparative fewness of those who if by chance they possessed a copy could read it. But we must not for a moment limit this scarcity of the wholesome nourishing Word to the scarcity of Bibles. The nourishment of the vast body of the Church is through teaching and preaching, and there may be a vast circulation of Bibles, and yet these Bibles unread and their contents undigested. (M. F. Sadler, M. A.)
Price lists made in heaven
People do not generally suppose that God has much to do with price-lists. They go up and down, and millions higgle over them every day, but no one thinks of anything Divine connected with them. But whether men realise it or not, price-lists are made in heaven. John hears the rates of corn and bread announced by the same heavenly powers by which these mystic horses are called into action. Whatever the weather, the crops, the quantities of money in the country, the extent of speculation in the market, or other subordinate causes may have to do with it, the prime and all-controlling cause is the decree of the throne. It is God from whom we have our daily bread, and it is by His will that it is plentiful and cheap, or scarce and costly. (J. A. Seiss, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 5. The third beast] That which had the face of a man.
A black horse] The emblem of famine. Some think that which took place under Claudius. See Mt 24:7; the same which was predicted by Agabus, Ac 11:28.
A pair of balances] To show that the scarcity would be such, that every person must be put under an allowance.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The third beast was he who had the face of a man, who also inviteth John to come and see what came forth upon his opening
the third seal. He seeth
a black horse, and a rider upon him, with
a pair of balances. There is a difference amongst interpreters what should be signified by this black horse; some by it understand famine, because a scarcity of victuals bringeth men to a black and swarthy colour; some understand by it justice, because the rider is said to have a pair of balances in his hand; others understand by it heresies, and great sufferings of the church by heretics and others.
He that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand; either to give men their bread by weight, (as is usual in times of great scarcity), or to measure out every one their due.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
5. Come and seeThe two oldestmanuscripts, A, C, and Vulgate omit “and see.” Bretains the words.
blackimplying sadnessand want.
hadGreek,“having.”
a pair of balancesthesymbol of scarcity of provisions, the bread being doled out byweight.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And when he had opened the third seal,…. Of the sealed book:
I heard the third beast say, come and see; this living creature was that which was like a man, who was on the south side of the throne, as the standard of Reuben, which had the figure of a man, was on the south side of the camp of Israel; this was not the Apostle Paul, as Grotius thinks, to whom was made a prophecy of a famine in the days of Claudius Caesar; nor Tertullian, who made an apology for the Christians in the times of this seal, as Brightman conjectures; but the ministers of the Gospel, whose voice was neither the voice of the lion nor of the ox, but of a man, which was still lower, but yet they retained their humanity, reasoning prudence, and wisdom; and these are represented as calling upon John to come and see, and take notice of the following hieroglyphic:
and I beheld, and lo a black horse; an emblem either of the afflicted state of the church, still answering to the Smyrnaean one, being black with persecutions, schisms, errors, and heresies, which were many; or particularly of the heresies and heretics of those times, who might be compared to a horse for their pride and ambition, speaking great swelling words of vanity, and to a black one, for their hidden things of dishonesty, and works of darkness, for the darkness in themselves, and which they spread over others; or rather of a famine, not in a spiritual sense, of hearing of the word, but in a literal sense; see La 4:7; not what was at the siege of Jerusalem, or in the times of Claudius Caesar, Ac 11:28; but in the times of the Emperor Severus, and others, as the historians of those times a, and the writings of Tertullian show; when the Heathens ascribed the scarcity that was among them to the wickedness of the Christians b, whereas it was a judgment upon them for their persecution of them:
and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand; by whom is meant not some noted heretic, or heretics, who had balances of deceit in their hands to prove their tenets by, such as spurious writings, c. or who made pretensions to the Scriptures, the balance of the sanctuary, to weigh doctrines in nor Christ, whose name heretics shrouded themselves under, and professed, and who overruled and made use of their heresies for the good of his people, that they might be made manifest. Mr. Mede thinks that Septimius Severus, the Roman emperor, who came from Africa, from the south, on which side was the living creature that spoke to John, is intended, and in which country black horses were in great esteem; and he was the only African that ever was emperor of Rome before c: and the same author thinks, that his having a pair of balances in his hand expresses the strict justice that emperor was famous for; but rather it signifies famine, and such a scarcity as that bread is delivered out by weight to men; see Le 26:26.
a Spartianus in Vita Severi, & Lampridius in Vita Alexandri. b Apolog. c. 40. & ad Scapulam, c. 3. c Cassiodor. Chronicon. & Eutrop. Hist. Roman. l. 8.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
A black horse ( ). Lust of conquest brings bloodshed, but also famine and hunger. “The colour of mourning and famine. See Jer 4:28; Jer 8:21; Mal 3:14, where mournfully is, literally, in black” (Vincent).
Had () as in verse 2.
A balance (). Literally, a yoke (old word from , to join), of slavery (Acts 15:10; Gal 5:1), of teaching (Mt 11:29), of weight or measure like a pair of scales evenly balancing as here (Ezek 5:1; Ezek 45:10). The rider of this black horse, like the spectral figure of hunger, carries in his hand a pair of scales. This is also one of the fruits of war.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Come and see. Omit and see.
Black. The color of mourning and famine. See Jer 4:28; Jer 8:21; Mal 3:14, where mournfully is, literally, in black.
Pair of balances [] . Rev., a balance. Properly, anything which joins two bodies; hence a yoke (Mt 11:29; Act 14:10). The cross – beam of the loom, to which the warp was fixed; the thwarts joining the opposite sides of a ship; the beam of the balance, and hence the balance itself. The judgment of this seal is scarcity, of which the balance is a symbol, representing the time when food is doled out by weight. See Lev 26:26; Eze 4:16.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
(THE THIRD SEAL OPENED)v. 5, 6 The Black Horse Rides – Sweeping Famine
1) “And when he opened the third seal,” (kai hote enoiksen ten sphragida ten triten) “And when he (the Lamb) opened the third seal,” because he was worthy, Rev 5:1-2; Rev 5:9; He was worthy to open all the seals and is declared to be the one who shall one day judge the living and the dead, 2Ti 4:1.
2) “I heard the third beast say,” (ekousa tou tritou zoou legontos) “I heard the third (of the four) living creatures saying,” calling me to witness another coming calamity to men.
3) “Come and see, and I beheld,” (erchou, kai eidon) “Come thou and see for thyself,” – “and I saw” and told it like he saw it, Rev 1:19.
4) “And lo a black horse,” (kai idou hippos melas) “And behold, (there was) a black horse; Black is typical of woe and mourning, with hunger and starvation, Rev 6:8.
5) “And he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand,” (kai ho kathemenos ep’ auton echon zugon en te cheiri autou) “And the one sitting (or riding) upon it (was) holding a balance in his hand; the pair of balances were scales for careful weighing, denoting scarcity of commodities that the horse-man was dispensing or distributing, a condition so frequently experienced by men following wars; Eze 5:1; all who follow’ this crowned – horse-rider, who switches horses four times, are weighed in the balances and found wanting, Dan 5:27.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
Strauss Comments
SECTION 17
Text Rev. 6:5-6
5 And when he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying, Come. And I saw, and behold, a black horse: and he that sat thereon had a balance in his hand. 6 And I heard as it were a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, A measure of wheat for a shilling, and three measures of barley for a shilling; and the oil and the wine hurt thou not.
Initial Questions Rev. 6:5-6
1.
What does the balance symbolize Rev. 6:5?
2.
Wheat and Barley is very scarce and expensive Rev. 6:6. What does this imply?
3.
Where in the Old Testament does this symbolism of the scarcity and expensiveness of basic food stuffs originate? (See Eze. 4:16; Eze. 5:16 f.)
4.
Why the command not to hurt the oil and wine?
Rev. 6:5
The third seal revealed a black horse, and the one sitting on it having a balance in his hand. Black signifies famine and weeping (see Jer. 4:28; Jer. 8:21; Mal. 3:14 where mourning is literally in black.) The rider on the black horse carried a pair of scales (zugon). What was the purpose of this scale or balance? John hurries to inform us!
Rev. 6:6
John heard one of the four living creatures saying: a choenix (a measure of some kind) of wheat for a denarius (about a penny), and three measures of barley for a denarius; and the oil and the wine do not harm. Famine is the key to this imagery. Food was scarce, and what was available had an exorbitant price tag on it. Though our present day inflation would make the prices vary considerably, we can see the picture from I. T. Beckwiths, (The Apocalypse of John, MacMillan, N. Y. 1919, p. 520 excellent, a must for advanced study.) statement that grain sold at twelve times its regular cost. We can see the picture better when we know that a denarius was a days wages. Here we clearly see the results of war. Wheat, barley, oil, and wine were the staple foods in Asia Minor and Palestine in the first century. Luxuries were unavailable, and even the staples were not abundantly available. Only those who survived with enough money could purchase the scarce food items. What does this imply for those who could not afford the high cost of famine and suffering? Scarcity is the ultimate cost of human conflicts (See Lev. 26:26 and Eze. 4:16.)
Review Questions
See Rev. 6:12-17.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(5, 6) When He had opened.Better, When he opened. The words and see are to be omitted here, as in the other seals. And I saw, and behold a horse, black, and he that sat on him having a balance in his hand. And I heard as it were a voice in the midst of the four living beings, saying, A choenix of wheat for a denarius (penny), and three choenixes of barley for a denarius (penny), and the oil and the wine do thou not hurt. Balance: There is scarcely a doubt that a balance, or pair of scales, is intended (the Greek word also means a yoke); but the whole imagery of the seal harmonises with the balance, and the passage from Ezekiel (Eze. 45:10), cited by Alford, in which there is a righteous balance (the LXX. using the same Greek word as here) seems conclusive. It is the emblem of scarcity: food is not weighed out thus in times of abundance. (Comp. Eze. 4:16, Behold I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem, and they shall eat bread by weight and with care.) The choenix (measure in English version) was the amount of food sufficient to support a man for a day. A choenix is the daily maintenance (Suidas, quoted by Alford). The denarius (penny of English version, here and in Mat. 18:28, and Mar. 12:37) amounted to between sixpence and sevenpence of our money, and was the usual daily pay of the labourer, and of the soldier. (See especially Note on Mat. 20:2.) It is difficult to speak of this as other than terribly high prices for food. The whole of a mans pay goes for food, and even the coarser bread is so expensive that it takes a whole days wages to supply food for three adults. It has been thought that the voice calls to the rider to check his devastations, lest the growing famine should exterminate the whole human race. This may be, but the check is at a point which has already wrought the highest misery. The extent of the misery may be imagined by imagining what wretchedness would be entailed were a man obliged to pay three or four shillings for bread sufficient to keep him nourished for a day. Or we may measure it by the estimate of the disciples (Mar. 6:37) that two hundred pennyworth of bread would give a short meal to upwards of five thousand people. At the price in this seal, the cost of bread would have so risen that the two hundred pennyworth of bread would not suffice to feed one thousand. But what is meant by the words, the oil and wine do not thou hurt? They were not, like the bread, necessary to life, but among its luxuries and superfluities. There is a kind of irony in times of straitness, when the necessaries are scarcely to be had, and the luxuries remain comparatively low in price. The splendours and comforts of life are held cheap, when hunger is showing that the life is more than the dainty meat, and the body than raiment. The seal then tells the seer that in the ages the Church of Christ must expect to see famines and distress in the world, and luxuries abounding in the midst of straitness. Is it not true that the contrast, which is so ugly, between pampered opulence and indolent, pauperism, is the result of the prevalence of world-principles? Wealth, self-indulgent and heartless, and poverty, reckless and self-willed, are sure tokens that the golden rule of Christ is not understood and obeyed. There is a similar experience in the history of the Church. The red horse of controversy is followed by the black horse of spiritual starvation. In the heat of polemical pride and passion for theological conquest is developed that love of barren dogmatics which forgets the milk of the word and the bread of life, which are the needed food of souls.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Third seal of SCARCITY, Rev 6:5-6.
5. Black horse Emblem of want of light, midnight, adversity.
Pair of balances Or scales. Emblem, not of absolute famine, but of “hard times;” of scarcity of provisions, when every thing is strictly weighed or measured.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
THE BLACK HORSE – FAMINE ( Rev 6:5-6 ).
Famine is the second of God’s sore judgments (Eze 14:21). In Lamentations those who suffered famine were described as ‘their visage is darker than blackness, they are not known in the streets, their skin cleaves to their bones, it is withered, it is become like a stick’ (Lam 4:8), and we are told ‘our skin is black like an oven because of the burning heat of famine’ (Lam 5:10). We can compare with this Jer 14:2 where the people sit in black on the ground because of the dire famine. So blackness is associated with famine.
The measurements of the wheat and barley also indicate famine, for men measure their food like this when hard times stare them in the face (Eze 14:10; Eze 14:16-17). In the time of the emperor Trajan a denarius would buy twenty times as much wheat as mentioned here, so that there is clearly a great shortage. But it is not quite starvation rations. So the black horse represents shortage and famine.
Yet the oil and wine is not to be hurt . Elsewhere we are told that the one who loves oil and wine will not be rich (Pro 21:17). This suggests that these items were seen more as luxury items. So it would seem that the idea is that the rich will not be inconvenienced. Only the poor will suffer. How true this has often been through history. But as Jesus stressed in the story of the rich man and Lazarus (Luk 16:19-31), the rich will one day be called to account. So the black horse represents the many shortages and famines that will bring such misery to mankind, starting from the first century onwards. These too God allows in His purposes.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The Third Seal: The Black Horse – We read about the opening of the third seal in Rev 6:5-6.
1. The Black Horse as Communism – This may symbolism the coming of communism, which promises everyone plenty of food and an equality of wealth for the society. Perhaps this equality is symbolized by the scales; the abundance of food is meant in the statement, “A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny”; and, equality of wealth is meant by the statement, “see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.”
2. The Black Horse as Capitalism – Irvin Baxter, Jr. suggests that the black horse represents the spirit of capitalism, which is often coupled with democracy. [70] The color black is used to represent this spirit. He quotes the Dec. 9, 1966 issue of Time magazine, page 34, regarding the union of the Christian Democrats and the Social Democrats being formed in Germany. It was called a union of “black and red.” We see the black suit and tie identifying a businessman of capitalism. Or, we recognize the single most important commodity that drives a capitalistic economy, which is oil, also called black gold. Any developed, industrialized and modernized society today will find its greatest revenues in this black gold. We all know of “Black Friday,” when the U.S. stock market crashed in October 1929. The description of “a pair of balances in his hands” (Rev 6:5) symbolizes how capitalism thrives on commerce. Nations under this influence declare that commerce improves the lives of people. Mr. Baxter interprets the cry, “A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny,” as prophetic of the stock market structure that is found in such countries. The cry, “and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine,” means that this nation is made strong when its economy is strong. Thus, the economy is always a key issue in the elections of such capitalistic societies. Capitalism brings the spirit of earthly wealth as its god to be worshipped. As a result, it too will persecute the Church for having a different view of material wealth.
[70] Irvin Baxter, Jr., A Message for the President (Richmond, Indiana: Endtime, Inc. 1986), chapter 3.
Rev 6:5 “and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand” Comments – If this black horse symbolizes communism, then the scales represented the promise that everyone in society would equally share the wealth.
Rev 6:6 “A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny” Comments – Perhaps this statement means that there is a promise made that there would be plenty of food for everyone.
Rev 6:6 “and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine” – Comments – Perhaps this statement means that there is a promise that wealth would be equally shared by all society.
Rev 6:6 Comments – We have a similar verse in 2Ki 6:25 when describing a famine in the land of Israel.
2Ki 6:25, “And there was a great famine in Samaria: and, behold, they besieged it, until an ass’s head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a cab of dove’s dung for five pieces of silver.”
Rev 6:7-8 a The Fourth Seal: The Pale Horse We read about the opening of the fourth seal in Rev 6:7-8.
1. The Pale Horse as Travail upon the Earth – Perhaps the pale horse represents the travail of the earth leading up to the Great Tribulation period, when wars, famines, pestilences and earthquakes will bring great distress upon the earth.
1. The Pale Horse as Islam – It is not unreasonable to see how the pale horse can represent the spirit of Islam. Islam is a religion that spreads and controls by fear, which is symbolized by the pale color of a person who is overcome with fear. This is the most recent spirit that has oppressed and persecuted nations on earth. This religion teaches that all people are “infidels” and are to be killed according to the Koran. It is the most violent of these four spirit, so it is characterized by death and hell.
Rev 6:7 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.
Rev 6:8 Rev 6:8
Rev 6:8 “And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth” Comments – The personal pronoun “them” refers to the four horsemen: the white horse (Rev 6:2), the red horse (Rev 6:4), the black horse (Rev 6:5), and the pale horse (Rev 6:8). When it conquers a nation, those people suffer poverty, hunger and famine. It is a spirit that keeps nations in distress and darkness so that even the beasts begin to rule areas of these countries. This verse tells us that about one fourth of the world will be completely overcome by the work of these four spirits.
Satan cannot work out of his realm of stealing, killing, and to destroy. He is limited to this work.
Joh 10:10, “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Rev 6:5-6. When he had opened the third seal, &c. The third seal or period is characterized by the strict execution of justice and judgment, and by the procuration of corn, oil, and wine; and was proclaimed by the third living creature, who was like a man, and had his station in the South. The measure of corn mentioned, Rev 6:6 is, in the original, a choenix, which was a man’s daily allowance as a penny was his daily wages; so that if his daily labour could earn no more than his daily bread, without other provision for himself or his family, corn must needs bear a very high price. But whatever may be the capacity of the choenix (which is difficult to be determined), yet such care, and such regulations, implyat least some scarcity; and scarcity obliges men to exactness in the price and measure of things. In short the intent of the prophesy is, that corn should be provided for the people; but it should be distributed in exact measure and proportion. This third period commences with Septimus Severus, who was an emperor from the South, being a native of Africa. He was an enacter of equal and just laws, and was very severe and implacable to offences; he never would grant a pardon even for petty larcenies, as neither would Alexander Severus in the same period. These two emperors were also no less celebrated for the procuring of corn, and oil, and other provisions, and for supplying the Romans with them after they had experienced a want of them. Of Septimus Severus it is said, that for the provision of corn, which he found very small, he so far consulted, that at his death he left a certain rate or allowance to the Roman people for seven years; and also of oil, as much as might supply, not only the uses of the city, but likewise of all Italy which might want it, for the space of five years. Of Alexander Severus it is also said, that he took such care in providing for the Roman people, that the corn which Heliogabalus had wasted, he replaced out of his own money; the oil also, which Septimus Severus had given to the people, and which Heliogabalus had lessened, he restored wholly as before. The colour of the black horse, Rev 6:5, befits the severity of their nature and their name; the balances are the well-known emblem of justice, as well as an intimation of scarcity; and the proclamation for justice and judgment, and for the procuration of corn, oil and wine, Rev 6:6, is fitly made by a creature like a man. This period continued during the reigns of the Septimian family, about forty-two years. See Lam 5:10.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Rev 6:5-6 . The meaning of the third seal-vision is to be determined according to the same norm as that of the second. The black color of the horse designates not the grief of those who have been afflicted by the plagues indicated by the entire image of the horseman, [2048] especially not the grief of the Church over heresy, as it is symbolized by the horse and horseman; but the black color must correspond to the destructive character of the image of the horseman itself. [2049] Yet it is not perceptible how, by this color, the particular nature of the plague announced, viz., famine, is expressed: [2050] it is sufficient to regard the black color [2051] as an indication that the figure appearing therein is one of a plague, a servant of divine judgment.
First, the special emblem ascribed to the horseman ( . , . . .), in addition to the unambiguous exclamation , . . ., makes us recognize in the third figure of a horseman the personification of famine.
. As to the expression, means properly the beam which unites the two scales, cf. Pro 16:11 ; as to the subject itself, since by the weighing of the grain which otherwise is measured, famine is represented, cf. Lev 26:26 , Eze 4:16 .
before [2052] corresponds with the circumstance that, to John, the person from whom the voice proceeds [2053] remains unknown. [2054] “ Audivi ut vocem ,” a Latin would say; i.e., “I heard (something) like a voice.” That the cry sounds forth “in the midst of the four beings,” is, in itself, natural, since the unsealing of the book of fate occurs at the throne of God, which is in the midst of the four beings; [2055] but as it is not without significance that the four beings, as representatives of the living creatures on earth, cry out to John, , so is it likewise significant that in the midst of those beings the cry sounds forth, which accompanies the figure of a plague pertaining to living creatures [2056] The first half of the call sounds just as when any thing is offered for sale. [2057] The gen. is that of the price. [2058] The second sentence contains a command which prescribes to the horseman, not only as the personification of the famine, but as the bearer of the visitation, the limit of the plague ordained by the Lord. Oil and wine are to grow as ordinarily: , i.e., “Do them no harm, injure them not;” [2059] although wheat and barley, and therefore the unconditionally necessary means of subsistence, are to be so dear that a day-laborer for his daily labor receives a denarius, [2060] nothing more than daily food for himself, a choinix of wheat, which is a man’s [2061] daily nourishment. If, therefore, the famine indicated do not reach the utmost extreme of hunger, [2062] yet the grievousness of the plague is obvious to every one who has learned to know the life of the people, viz., of the lower classes, in the neighborhood. That oil and wine remain exempted, is, of course, a mitigation of the famine; but on the other hand, by the plentiful presence of these two means of nourishment, even though in Oriental life they are luxuries far less than among us, the lying in the famine which had entered is essentially strengthened, and the critical force also of these plagues in an ethical respect, which belong to the signs preceding Christ’s coming, [2063] intensified.
[2048] De Wette, Hengstenb., etc.
[2049] Cf. Rev 6:2 ; Rev 6:4 ; Rev 6:8 .
[2050] Beng.
[2051] Cf. Rev 6:12 .
[2052] See Critical Notes.
[2053] Cf. Rev 1:12 .
[2054] Cf. Rev 9:13 , Rev 10:4 ; Rev 10:8 , Rev 14:13 , Rev 18:4 .
[2055] Rev 4:6 , Rev 5:6 .
[2056] Cf. also Hengstenb.
[2057] Winer, p. 456.
[2058] Winer, p. 194.
[2059] Cf. Rev 7:2-3 , Rev 9:4 ; Rev 9:10 ; Rev 9:19 , Rev 2:11 .
[2060] Mat 20:2 .
[2061] Cf. Wetst.
[2062] Cf. Joe 1:10 sqq.
[2063] Mat 24:7 . Hengstenb. incorrectly judges, that the famine, Rev 6:5-6 , does not belong to the , Mat 24:7 , but is “the prelude of that fulfilment.”
The reference of Rev 6:5-6 , to the famine under Claudius, [2064] or to any other particular dearth, [2065] is decidedly contrary to the sense of the text; since here, as also in Rev 6:3-4 , and Rev 6:7 sqq., no special fact is meant, especially not one predicted only after its occurrence, but rather, in accord with the fundamental prophecy (Mat 24:7 ), a certain kind of plagues is described, [2066] which precede the coming of the Lord. Purely arbitrary is the allegorizing interpretation, e.g., in Beda, [2067] Vitr., [2068] C. a Lap., [2069] Stern, [2070] etc. N. de Lyra understands by the black horse, the Roman army; by the horseman, Titus; by the wheat and barley, Jews; by oil and wine, Christians. The acme of arbitrary interpretation is attained by those who, as even Bhmer, understand the wheat and barley properly, and the wine and oil figuratively as a designation of Christians. Any such distinction would have been indicated by the omission of the art. with and , whereas, on the other hand, it is found with and . But although the art. in the latter case designates simply the class as a whole, this is lacking in the former case just as naturally; since there not the kind of fruit as such, but a quantity, is mentioned, which therefore allows no other designation than that of the mass, which in simple composition is given as .
[2064] Grot., Wetst., Harenb., Herd., Bhm.
[2065] Cf. Calov., Bengel, Huschke.
[2066] Cf. De Wette, Hengstenb., Ebrard.
[2067] “The black horse is the band of false brethren, who have the balance of a right profession, but injure their associates by works of darkness.”
[2068] “Dearness of spiritual provision, viz., in the time from Constantine until the ninth century.”
[2069] = a heretic, as Arius; . = the Devil, or heresiarch; and = Holy Scripture; . = the merit of sound faith and of daily holy life; . = the gospel; . = the harsh old law; . and . = the medicine of our Samaritan Christ.
[2070] Personified erroneous doctrine.
NOTES BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR
XLVIII. Rev 6:2 .
Luthardt: “That is, the Word of God, which was the first in the history of N. T. times to pass victoriously through the world, and whose words flew far like arrows, and penetrated the heart (Psa 45:6 ).” Alford: “The might be said of any victorious earthly power whose victories should endure for the time then present, and afterwards pass away; but the can only be said of a power whose victories are to last forever. We must not, on the one hand, too hastily introduce the person of our Lord himself; or, on the other, be startled at the objection that we shall be paralleling him, or one closely resembling him, with the far different forms which follow. Doubtless, the resemblance to the rider in Rev 19:11 is very close, and is intended to be very close. The difference, however, is considerable. There he is set forth as present in his triumph, followed by the hosts of heaven: here he is working in bodily absence, and the rider is not himself, but only a symbol of his victorious power, the embodiment of his advancing kingdom as regards that side of its progress where it breaks down earthly power, and makes the kingdom of the world to be the kingdom of our Lord and his Christ. Further, it would not be wise, nor, indeed, according to the analogy of these visions, to specify. In all cases but the last, these riders are left in the vagueness of their symbolic offices. If we attempt, in this case, to specify further, e.g., as Victorinus: ‘The white horse is the word of preaching sent with the Holy Spirit into the world. For the Lord says, This gospel shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come,’ while we are sure that we are thus far right, we are but partially right, seeing that there are other aspects and instruments of victory of the kingdom of Christ besides the preaching of the word.” If the word “preaching” be limited to public discourses, or even to the public reading and private study of the word, Alford is quite right. But just as the sacraments are only the visible word, and are efficacious because of the word of God joined with them, so every agency for the diffusion of Christ’s kingdom may be reduced to the word of God under some form. Gebhardt (p. 238) regards the rider on the white horse as a personification of victorious war. His objection to the view adopted by Dsterdieck, that the Lamb could not have opened the seals, and at the same time have been represented in what the seal portrays, is not very formidable, and, at most, would not interfere with the conception above proposed of the Word as rider.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
(5) And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. (6) And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.
By this third horse, which was black, and the scanty measure of corn, which John, heard proclaimed, as the standard price for a penny, meaning a man’s daily allowance; (Mat 20:2 ) is very plainly taught to us, that it implied famine: when all faces gather blackness, as the Prophet said, and when the land was desolate. Joe 2:3-6 . And God long before declared, that such should be the case, when punishments followed, one upon the heels of another. When I have broken the staff of your bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one open, and they shall deliver you your bread again by weight, and ye shall eat and not be satisfied. Lev 26:26 . Now let the Reader pause, and observe how suitably the Lord’s judgments follow the rejection of Christ and his Gospel. Jesus is the bread of life. He comes on a white horse; to intimate peace, and plenty. Men, reject him. Then comes One on a red horse, with a sword for war. Whether we are to consider Christ himself on this red horse, I will not determine, or whether his messenger. For the Prophet Zechariah, in his vision, saw Christ on a red horse, and behind him there were red horses speckled, that is, bay and white, Zec 1:8 . To this judgment succeeds another, namely, famine, And how awful doth the Prophet describe the little effect which followed all judgments, where grace is not in the heart? I have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places, yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord, Amo 4:6 . But, Reader! what a yet more awful judgment is that when, for the wickedness of a land, the Lord withdraws his Gospel, gives the land up to a perpetual barrenness of God’s truths. Such a state the same Prophet describes, if the Reader would see it: Amo 8:9 to the end. But let God’s people rejoice under all scantiness of the bread that perisheth in using, as long as they have the bread of life broken to them by the Lord himself, from day to day. In times of persecution in this land, the old saints of God used to say, that bread and water, with Christ and his Gospel, was delicious fare. And this proved that sweet scripture, and marked the Lord’s distinguishing grace over his people, when the Lord God said: Behold, my servant shall eat, but ye shall be hungry; behold, my servants shall drink, but ye shall be thirsty; behold my servants shall rejoice, but ye shall be ashamed? I beg the Reader to turn to the scripture itself, for it is a sweet one, and let him read the whole, Isa 65:13 to the end.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
5 And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.
Ver. 5. A black horse ] Famine discolours and denigrates, Lam 4:7-8 . It accompanies war for the most part, and in sieges is very extreme, as at Samaria, where an ass’s head was worth four pounds; at Rome, where this proclamation was made in the market, Pone pretium humanae carni; Place a reward on the flesh of a man, at Scodra, where horses were dainty meat, yea, they were glad to eat dogs, cats, rats, &c. At Antioch in Syria, where many Christians (in the holy war, as they called it) were glad to eat the dead bodies of their late slain enemies. (Turk. Hist.)
Had a pair of balances ] Gr. , the beam of scales. To show that bread should be delivered out by measure, as is threatened, Eze 4:16 ; Deu 28:59-68 , and men should be stinted and pittanced.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
5, 6 .] And when he opened the third seal, I heard the third living-being saying, Come (see above on Rev 6:1 ). And I saw, and behold a black horse (the colour is indicative of the mournful nature of the employment of the rider: see below), and he that sat on him having a balance (the symbol of scarcity, during which the bread is doled out by weight: see Eze 4:16 , : and Lev 26:26 , , . Some, as e. g. Woodhouse, have defended the meaning “ yoke ” for . But surely the question is here decided for us by ref. Ezek., , , : where the same words occur in juxtaposition. The assertion of Mr. Barker, in his strictures on Elliott’s Hor Ap., that in the sense of balance absolutely is very rare, is sufficiently answered by the proverb : by Diog. Laert. viii. 18, where he records of Pythagoras the maxim , , . When a word can be thus used figuratively in common sayings, its literal sense cannot be so very rare. Cf. also the Etymologicon in Wetstein, : and his citations from Sextus Empir. and Demosthenes) in his hand. And I heard as it were ( must apparently be taken with the whole clause “something like (a voice in the midst of the four living-beings),” the uncertainty applying to the situation , not to its being a voice, which it was ) a voice in the midst of the four living-beings (it is not specified, whose voice: but the point from which the voice comes is appropriate to its intent, which is to mitigate the woes of creation, represented by the four living-beings: see below), saying (Let there be) A chnix of wheat for a denarius (gen. of price, see Winer, edn. 6, 30. 10 end), and three chnixes of barley for a denarius (the sense seems to be, Take care that there be thus much food for thus much price. The denarius was the ordinary soldier’s pay for a day in the time of Tiberius (see note on Mat 20:2 ), and has been usually and not unfairly assumed to be twice mentioned here as representing a day’s wages. The chnix appears in like manner to be taken for a day’s provision: for so it is used in several of the numerous places cited by Wetst.: e. g. Herod., vii. 187, who, in estimating the amount of food consumed by the army of Xerxes, assumes this: , : Thuc. iv. 16, speaking of the allowance made to the Lacedmonians in Sphacteria while negotiations were going on, , : Athen. x. 452 E, , , : Diog. Laert. Pythag. viii. 18, and Suidas under Pythagoras, , . Nothing can be more decisive than such proverbial usage. The tendency of the voice is then to check or limit the agency of the rider on the black horse, and to provide that notwithstanding his errand sustenance shall not utterly fail. With regard to the three chnixes of barley, the cheaper and less profitable grain, it seems to have been rightly interpreted as taking in the other case, of the workman who, out of his denarius a day, has to maintain not himself only, but his family also, and cannot consequently afford the dearer wheaten bread); and the oil and the wine do not thou injure (not, as Heinr. and recently Elliott, “do thou not commit injustice in the matter of the oil and the wine.” The usage of this book should have prevented such an interpretation: for with the accus. of the material object hurt or injured is the constant habit of our Writer, see reff.: and in no case do we find the other construction used by him, or indeed by any other writer to my knowledge, except with such general adverbial accusatives as and , e. g. Gal 4:12 ; Phm 1:18 . This statement of the usage of in this Book and in Greek literature, Mr. Elliott, more suo , calls a “vain dictum:” and adds, “In the three Apocalyptic examples of the thing injured , occurring in connexion with the verb in the active sense of injury , the accusative follows the verb: Rev 7:2-3 , Rev 9:4 .” It did not suit his purpose to cite Rev 11:5 , , and he therefore appears to introduce a distinction (of course untenable) between the person and thing injured. But this whole matter of the position of the accusative has to do with the emphasis only, and not with the construction at all. Not one of the examples which he cites in his note is to the point: in that from Xenophon, Cyrop. iv. 5. 42, , , , , the pendent accusative being evidently prefixed to the whole subsequent enactment, not connected with the first verb in it only. Rinck gives another meaning, equally untenable, “ waste not the oil and the wine,” seeing they are so costly.
As regards the meaning, the spirit of the saying is as explained above: the rider on the black horse symbolizing Famine, is limited in his desolating action by the command given, that enough is to be reserved for sustenance. Wheat, barley, oil, and wine, formed the ordinary sources of nourishment: cf. Psa 104:14-15 . So that as regards its intent , the command is parallel with that saying of our Lord in Mat 24:22 ; , . It is the mercy of God, tempering His judgments. And in its general interpretation, as the opening of the first seal revealed the certain proceeding on to victory of Christ and His church, and the second, that His coming should be prepared in the world not by peace but by the sword, so now by this third we learn that Famine, the pressure of want on men, not sweeping them away by utter failure of the means of subsistence, but keeping them far below the ordinary standard of comfort, and especially those who depend on their daily labour, will be one of the four judgments by which the way of the Lord’s coming will be opened. This seems to point, not so much to death by famine, which belongs to the next vision, as to agrarian distress with all its dreadful consequences: ripening in some cases (see below) into the hunger-death, properly the consequence of Famine.
The above interpretation of the third seal is given in the main by Victorinus “Equus niger autem famem significat; ait enim Dominus: Erunt fames per loca:” but he allegorizes the latter part of the vision: “vinum et oleum ne lseris, id est, hominem spiritualem ne plagis percusseris”).
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Rev 6:5-6 . The third seal opened = famine .
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Rev 6:5 . The spectral figure of Hunger holds a balance or pair of scales ( . literally = the beam, see reff.) for measuring bread by weight, to personify (Rev 6:6 ) bad times, when provisions became cruelly expensive. One of wheat, the usual rations of a working man for a day, is to cost twelve times its normal price, while the labourer’s daily pay will not command more than an eighth of the ordinary twenty-four measures of the coarser barley. Grain is not to disappear entirely from the earth, otherwise there would be no famine. But food-stuffs are to be extremely scanty and therefore dear ( cf. Lev 26:26 ; Eze 4:16 ). These hard times are aggravated ( adversative) by the immunity of oil and wine, which are, comparatively speaking, luxuries. One exasperating feature of the age would be the sight of wine and oil flowing, while grain trickled slowly into the grasp of the famishing. The best explanation of this realistic exception is to regard it as a water-mark of the Domitianic date (for details see the present writer’s study in Expos. Oct. 1908, 359 369). In 92 A.D. Domitian had made a futile attempt to injure the cultivation of the vine in the provinces, which led to widespread agitation throughout Ionia. His edict had soon to be withdrawn, but not till it had roused fear and anger. Hence the words hurt not the wine have the force of a local allusion to what was fresh in his readers’ minds. The point of the saying lies in the recent events which had stirred Smyrna and the surrounding townships, and which provided the seer with a bit of colour for his palette as he painted the final terrors. It is as if he grimly said: “Have no fears for your vines! There will be no Domitian to hurt them. Comfort yourselves with that. Only, it will be small comfort to have your liquid luxuries spared and your grain reduced almost to starvation point.” Or, the prophet’s meaning might be that the exemption of the vine would only pander to drunkenness and its attendant ills. The addition of is probably an artistic embodiment, introduced in order to fill out the sketch. The cultivation of the olive accompanied that of the vine, and the olive meant smooth times. It is no era of peace; far from that, the prophet implies. But the olive, “the darling of Peace” (as Vergil calls it), flourishes unchecked, so mocking and awry are the latter days. For = “injure” (a country), see reff., Rev 7:2 , and Dittenberger’s Sylloge Inscr. Graec. 557. This Domitianic reference of Rev 6:6 was first worked out by S. Reinach ( Revue Archolog . 1901, 350 f.) and has been accepted by Harnack, Heinrici, Bousset, J. Weiss, Abbott, Holtzmann, Baljon, and others. There is no allusion to Jos. Bell . Rev 6:13 ; Rev 6:6 , or to the sparing of gardens during the siege of Jerusalem (S. Krauss, in Preuschen’s Zeitschrift , 1909, 81 89).
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Rev 6:5-6
5When He broke the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying, “Come.” I looked, and behold, a black horse; and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand. 6And I heard something like a voice in the center of the four living creatures saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not damage the oil and the wine.”
Rev 6:5 “I looked, and behold, a black horse” This is a symbol of famine (cf. Mat 24:7) which follows war.
Rev 6:6 “A quart of wheat for a denarius” A denarius was a day’s wage for a soldier or a laborer (cf. Mat 20:2). We learn from Herodotus that this would purchase the normal amount of food required for one man for one day. This shows the severity of the famine: that a man could work all day and have only enough food for himself.
SPECIAL TOPIC: COINS IN USE IN PALESTINE IN JESUS’ DAY
“three quarts of barley for a denarius” Barley was the staple diet of the poor. This Greek word “quarts” is “choinix” and equaled about 1.92 pints.
“and do not damage the oil and the wine” It is amazing how many interpretations there are of this detail. Many try to go back to the Temple scroll of the Dead Sea Scrolls to find some allusion to Jewish sacrifice. Oil and wine were staples of the diet of Mediterranean people. The fact that these were not hurt shows a limited famine. This limitation can also be seen in Rev 6:8. God limits His judgment so that unbelievers will have time to repent (cf. Rev 16:9). It is also possible that both of these were used for medical purposes.
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
beheld = saw, Rev 6:1.
lo = behold, Rev 6:2.
black. Signifying famine. See Lam 4:4-8, &c.
pair, &c. = balance.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
5, 6.] And when he opened the third seal, I heard the third living-being saying, Come (see above on Rev 6:1). And I saw, and behold a black horse (the colour is indicative of the mournful nature of the employment of the rider: see below), and he that sat on him having a balance (the symbol of scarcity, during which the bread is doled out by weight: see Eze 4:16, : and Lev 26:26, , . Some, as e. g. Woodhouse, have defended the meaning yoke for . But surely the question is here decided for us by ref. Ezek., , , : where the same words occur in juxtaposition. The assertion of Mr. Barker, in his strictures on Elliotts Hor Ap., that in the sense of balance absolutely is very rare, is sufficiently answered by the proverb : by Diog. Laert. viii. 18, where he records of Pythagoras the maxim , , . When a word can be thus used figuratively in common sayings, its literal sense cannot be so very rare. Cf. also the Etymologicon in Wetstein, : and his citations from Sextus Empir. and Demosthenes) in his hand. And I heard as it were ( must apparently be taken with the whole clause-something like (a voice in the midst of the four living-beings), the uncertainty applying to the situation, not to its being a voice, which it was) a voice in the midst of the four living-beings (it is not specified, whose voice: but the point from which the voice comes is appropriate to its intent, which is to mitigate the woes of creation, represented by the four living-beings: see below), saying (Let there be) A chnix of wheat for a denarius (gen. of price, see Winer, edn. 6, 30. 10 end), and three chnixes of barley for a denarius (the sense seems to be, Take care that there be thus much food for thus much price. The denarius was the ordinary soldiers pay for a day in the time of Tiberius (see note on Mat 20:2), and has been usually and not unfairly assumed to be twice mentioned here as representing a days wages. The chnix appears in like manner to be taken for a days provision: for so it is used in several of the numerous places cited by Wetst.: e. g. Herod., vii. 187, who, in estimating the amount of food consumed by the army of Xerxes, assumes this: , : Thuc. iv. 16, speaking of the allowance made to the Lacedmonians in Sphacteria while negotiations were going on,- , : Athen. x. 452 E, , , : Diog. Laert. Pythag. viii. 18, and Suidas under Pythagoras, , . Nothing can be more decisive than such proverbial usage. The tendency of the voice is then to check or limit the agency of the rider on the black horse, and to provide that notwithstanding his errand sustenance shall not utterly fail. With regard to the three chnixes of barley, the cheaper and less profitable grain, it seems to have been rightly interpreted as taking in the other case, of the workman who, out of his denarius a day, has to maintain not himself only, but his family also, and cannot consequently afford the dearer wheaten bread); and the oil and the wine do not thou injure (not, as Heinr. and recently Elliott, do thou not commit injustice in the matter of the oil and the wine. The usage of this book should have prevented such an interpretation: for with the accus. of the material object hurt or injured is the constant habit of our Writer, see reff.: and in no case do we find the other construction used by him, or indeed by any other writer to my knowledge, except with such general adverbial accusatives as and , e. g. Gal 4:12; Phm 1:18. This statement of the usage of in this Book and in Greek literature, Mr. Elliott, more suo, calls a vain dictum: and adds, In the three Apocalyptic examples of the thing injured, occurring in connexion with the verb in the active sense of injury, the accusative follows the verb: Rev 7:2-3, Rev 9:4. It did not suit his purpose to cite Rev 11:5, , and he therefore appears to introduce a distinction (of course untenable) between the person and thing injured. But this whole matter of the position of the accusative has to do with the emphasis only, and not with the construction at all. Not one of the examples which he cites in his note is to the point: in that from Xenophon, Cyrop. iv. 5. 42, , , , , the pendent accusative being evidently prefixed to the whole subsequent enactment, not connected with the first verb in it only. Rinck gives another meaning, equally untenable, waste not the oil and the wine, seeing they are so costly.
As regards the meaning, the spirit of the saying is as explained above: the rider on the black horse symbolizing Famine, is limited in his desolating action by the command given, that enough is to be reserved for sustenance. Wheat, barley, oil, and wine, formed the ordinary sources of nourishment: cf. Psa 104:14-15. So that as regards its intent, the command is parallel with that saying of our Lord in Mat 24:22; , . It is the mercy of God, tempering His judgments. And in its general interpretation, as the opening of the first seal revealed the certain proceeding on to victory of Christ and His church, and the second, that His coming should be prepared in the world not by peace but by the sword, so now by this third we learn that Famine, the pressure of want on men, not sweeping them away by utter failure of the means of subsistence, but keeping them far below the ordinary standard of comfort, and especially those who depend on their daily labour, will be one of the four judgments by which the way of the Lords coming will be opened. This seems to point, not so much to death by famine, which belongs to the next vision, as to agrarian distress with all its dreadful consequences: ripening in some cases (see below) into the hunger-death, properly the consequence of Famine.
The above interpretation of the third seal is given in the main by Victorinus-Equus niger autem famem significat; ait enim Dominus: Erunt fames per loca: but he allegorizes the latter part of the vision: vinum et oleum ne lseris, id est, hominem spiritualem ne plagis percusseris).
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Rev 6:5. ) The Greek poets call the famine which this horseman would inflict on men, were he not withheld, , , that is, black, gloomy: and the Latins use the same epithets.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Rev 6:5-6
3. THE THIRD SEAL OPENED
Rev 6:5-6
5 And when he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying, Come.–See the notes on verse 1.
And I saw, and behold, a black horse; and he that sat thereon had a balance in his hand.–The significance of the horse has already been explained under the first seal. The difference is that here the horse is black. It should be noted that neither bow nor sword was given the rider, but instead he carried a pair of balances in his hand. The description of the first two visions clearly indicates that both refer to active fighting–aggressive warfare. The first pictures successful warfare for the Roman Empire; the second disastrous. The absence of any expression in the third vision to indicate fighting shows that this symbol should have a different interpretation. This will be evident as we examine the meanings of the various expressions found in it. A surface glance at the terms used suggests that it represents some terrible results that follow in the wake of continued and devastating battles–that is, distress and sufferings because of great scarcity. Death, another horrible result of war, as presented in the fourth vision is attributed to four causes, one of which is famine. The third seal, therefore, is picturing the scarcity of the necessities of life and the difficulty of getting them by reason of high prices.
As an emblem the black color represents deep distress manifested in mourning. Jeremiah said: “Judah mourneth and the gates thereof languish, they sit in black upon the ground and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up.” (Jer 14:2.) Compare Eze 32:7. The cause of mourning might be deep distress on account of famine, pestilence, death, oppression, or invasion of the country. The, particular thing that causes the mourning in any case will have to be learned from its description in the text.
Balances and scales are symbols of justice and exactness. (Pro 11:1; Job 31:6.) Things may be weighed because of their intrinsic value or their scarcity. According to the view taken in this commentary there would result from the many devastating wars and internal strife such scarcity of food supplies as would have to becarefully preserved and dispensed with rigid exactness. The rider carrying a balance indicated that the Roman government would cause that state of things to exist. This could have meant that such laws could have been enacted by the government for the common safety of the citizens or the exactness with which the taxes were collected, or both. We should not forget that any distress that came to the empire would directly affect the church, for it was for many centuries within, and subject to, the Roman power. Hence, the picturing of this future fact was intended evidently to warn the churches then about what awaited them when great happenings would take place in countries where they lived–within the bounds of the Roman Empire. Lev 26:24-26 and Eze 4:16 both show that bread sold by weight, which indicates scarcity. Doubtless the same was true of other commodities.
6 And I heard as it were a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, A measure of wheat for a shilling, and three measures of barley for a shilling; and the oil and the wine hurt thou not.–John heard a voice that seemed to come from the midst of the four living creatures. It is not stated who spake, but it seemed directed to the rider of the horse. This indicated that his mission in going forth was to produce such a situation that wheat and barley would sell at enormous prices. This does not indicate famine conditions where there is nothing to sell, but great scarcity when extreme and exacting methods have to be used to protect the supply. The word “measure” is equal to about one quart. The Greek term for shilling had the value of sixteen and two-thirds cents. This made a bushel of wheat worth more than five dollars. The purchasing power of money then was probably much more than ours, so the price of wheat in the value of our money would, doubtless, be two or three times that much. These prices show that great scarcity of food products, which is doubtless all that was intended by the expressions.
Expositors are hopelessly disagreed about the meaning of “the oil and the wine hurt thou not.” It is useless to attempt to state the various views. It is evident, however, that the proper application will harmonize with what has just been said about the wheat and barley. Since the whole symbol indicates the devastating results of warfare and the scarcity of common necessities, the instruction pertains to the extreme care in protecting them. Oil and wine then being necessary articles of food, great care was to be observed not to damage that source of support. Though this command seems directed to the rider, who represented the ruling power of the empire, it may have been general instruction to be carried out by all the people.
Perhaps the fulfillment of the symbol need not be limited to the reign of any one particular emperor, since such conditions would follow after internal warfare and oppression at any time. But the rule of Caracalla (A.D. 211-217), both in nature and time, would probably come within the limits required. He is referred to in history as one of the most “blood-thirsty tyrants,” giving the empire a reign of terror. Gibbon calls him the “common enemy of mankind,” and says: “The most wealthy families were ruined by partial fines and confiscations, and the great body of his subjects oppressed by ingenious and aggravated taxes.” (Decline and Fall, Vol. I, p. 160.) Regarding the same Gibbon says further: “In the course of this history, we shall be too often summoned to explain the land tax, the capitation, and the heavy contributions of corn, wine, oil, and meat, which were exacted from the provinces for the use of the court, the army, and the capital.” (Ibid., p. 195.) In such conditions the church in all the Roman provinces would suffer with other subjects of the empire. This condition would naturally interfere with the preaching of the gospel.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
beast living creatures. (See Scofield “Eze 1:5”).
Come and see Come! Omit “and see.” So Rev 6:1; Rev 6:3; Rev 6:7.
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
he had: Rev 6:1, Rev 4:6, Rev 4:7, Rev 5:5, Rev 5:9
a black: Zec 6:2, Zec 6:6
had: Lev 26:26, Lam 5:10, Eze 4:10, Eze 4:16
Reciprocal: Rev 6:7 – General Rev 8:1 – And
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Rev 6:5. The third seal was broken and the announcement was made for John to come and see. This time lie saw a black horse which symbolized a condition of famine or shortage of food. The same subject was further indicated by the pair of balances that the rider held in his hand. It denoted that the necessities of life would be measured out to the people.
Rev 6:6. Wheat and barley are necessities of life, and the great price that is indicated by the figures shows that it was to be a time of scarcity, which is generally the case after a siege of warfare. Oil and mine are not necessary as articles of food, but are helpful as agencies of relief in times of distress. In the midst of the hardships the Lord predicted some relief would be afforded through these articles.
Comments by Foy E. Wallace
Verses 5-6.
The black horse (third seal)–Rev 6:5-6.
The black horse was the color of distress, the portent of terror in the approaching calamity. It compares with the Old Testament figure in Joe 2:6 : “The people shall be much pained, all faces gather blackness”; and in Nah 2:10 : “The faces of them all gather blackness”; and in Jer 8:21 : “For the hurt of my people am I hurt, I am black.” Jud 1:13 refers to the “blackness of darkness forever.” It is the picture of the grim, dread calamity of famine in the land.
The balances in the hand of the rider were scales and measures and indicated the scarcity in the land; the strict and small allowance of food to be issued by minute measure or exact weight with legislated care. It compares with Mat 24:7, where Jesus foretold the famine that prevailed during the siege of Jerusalem.
The voice in the midst of the four beasts (or beings) was in repetition of the voices heard in the visions, and impressed the hidden source of the revelations, adding to the portentous element of its apocalyptic character. The sound of this voice came from the midst of the four beings; hence, from within deep recesses of the throne, since the beings were in the midst of the throne; it was a voice of solemn authority, requiring reverence and heed.
The measures of wheat and barley for a penny were according to the standard of the time. A measure of wheat was equal to approximately one quart. The penny is a translation of the Greek denarius, which the Bible Dictionaries say was equivalent to fifteen or twenty cents, and represented a regular full day’s wages. The price for a measure of wheat, or a quart, in this vision amounted to a whole day’s wages, and was therefore an extortionate price, the payment of a full day’s work. (Mat 20:2) Three measures of barley were less than a gallon for a day’s wages, which indicates the extreme scarcity in the usually common and plentiful sources of food.
The command to hurt not the oil and the wine was addressed to the rider of the black horse, holding the scales and measures, not to suppress the oil and the wine. The oil was an extract from olives and spices, having many uses in both the Old and New Testaments. It was used in the preparation of food (Exo 29:2; Lev 2:4); for illumination, or lamps (Exo 25:6; Mat 25:3); for medicinal remedies (Isa 1:6; Mar 6:13); for a divine confection in the various legal and religious ceremonies and appointments. (Exo 30:25; Eze 28:14). The use of oil signified joy; the omission of it was a token of sorrow. (Psa 92:10; 2Sa 14:2; Mat 6:17) The wine has been the subject of sundry and divers views, based on variations of the Hebrew and Greek words; but it is a well known fact that the characteristic common to all wine is that of an exhilarating beverage. Its misuse is severely condemned in both testaments and in some cases and places expressly forbidden. The word is used to denote abundance of temporal good things (Gen 27:28-37); and as a type of spiritual blessings (Isa 55:1); and as alleviation of trouble and sorrow (Pro 31:6).
In the vision of the red horse, the voice commanded the rider not to hurt the oil and the wine, not to limit or ration the oil and the wine; though famine would dissipate all other commodities, oil and wine would be undiminished. It was evidently the symbol of the providential alleviation of suffering and mitigation of sorrow–with oil and wine he would bind up their wounds. It was the voice of promise in the midst of the living creatures, from within the throne, that the ransomed of the Lord should come to Zion with songs of everlasting joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing would flee away.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Rev 6:5-6. The third horse is black, the colour of mourning and of famine (Jer 4:28; Jer 8:21; Jer 14:2; Mal 3:14, margin; Rev 6:12), and he comes forth with his rider in answer to the same cry as before, Come. Again Jesus comes in this seal just as He had come in the first and second seals, although no more than in these is the rider Jesus Himself. The judgment of this seal is famine. The rider has a pair of balances in his hand in order to weigh the corn. The usual method of dealing out corn was to measure it: here it is to be weighed, not measured, and the mention of the measure in the following words is simply to give us a proper idea of the quantity weighed out. The symbol is one of great scarcity (Eze 4:16; comp. Lev 26:26-28).
A voice, or rather as it were a voice, is then heard in the midst of the four living creatures, a voice, therefore, which can only come from the throne of God, saying, A measure of wheat, etc. The measure referred to was considered to be the amount needed for the daily support of one man. The penny, nearly nine-pence of our money, was the wage of a complete days work (Mat 20:2), and sufficed in ordinary circumstances to purchase about eight measures. The meaning is, that so great would be the scarcity that a man, by working a whole day, would be able to purchase with his earnings no more than an eighth part of what he could purchase at the same price in ordinary times, or than would be sufficient for the necessity of his own life, to say nothing either of his many other wants, or of the wants of his family. He might indeed obtain three measures of barley for the same sum; but to be obliged to depend upon barley was itself a token of severe scarcity.The scarcity is produced by the riders hurting the wheat and the barley. The words next addressed to him, therefore,and the oil and the wine hurt thou not,mean in the first instance that he is not to carry this hurting to an unreasonable extent. The tendency of the voice is to check or limit the agency of the rider on the black horse, and to provide that, notwithstanding his errand, sustenance shall not utterly fail. Yet it is not enough to say this. We are persuaded that the meaning lies much deeper. Oil and wine are not to be regarded only as the privilege of the rich; and thus the symbol cannot be one of the mocking contrast between an abundance of luxuries and a famine of the necessaries of life. In Eastern lands oil and wine are as needful to the poor as to the rich (comp. Deu 15:14; Luk 7:46). But to all, both rich and poor, they were symbols not so much of the ordinary provision for existence as of feasting and joy (Psa 23:5). Their preservation, therefore, neither means only on the one hand, that a certain check shall be put upon the ravages of a famine by which all are to be overtaken, nor, on the other hand, that the misery to come shall be aggravated by the fact of luxuries being untouched while the necessary aliment of life fails. The symbol seems to point in an entirely different direction, and to show that He who restrains the power of famine does this with especial reference to that joy of life which is the portion of His people. While the world suffers He preserves them. The plague does not come nigh their dwelling. For His elects sake God spares those things which are the expression of their joy. Except those days had been shortened, no flesh would have been saved; but for the elects sake those days shall be shortened (Mat 24:22). The interpretation now given derives confirmation from the use of the verb hurt in chap. Rev 7:3, Hurt not, that is, do not execute judgment upon the earth. We learn now where the people of God were during these times of trial. We heard nothing of them under the second seal, but they were safe; and, with the usual climax of thought running through this book, we hear under the third seal, speaking on their behalf, the voice of Him who is their unfailing Guardian and Friend. Now they are more than safe. They can say, Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over (Psa 23:5).
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
The third seal opened, sets forth the great calamity which should befall the church by famine, which some understand literally, others figuratively and mystically.
1. A literal famine in Judea, seems here to be prefigured by a person riding on a black horse, with a balance to weigh food in his hand: famine discolours, the face of men, and makes them look black, sad, and dismal; accordingly it is represented by a black horse; and the rider having a pair of scales in his hand to weigh corn by the pound, and not to measure it by the bushel, imports the great scarcity that there should be in bread; and St. John heard a voice saying, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny.
The Roman penny was the ordinary wages for a day’s work to a labourer, so that the quantity of bread was but sufficient to keep persons alive for one day. Famine is a very sore and terrible judgment, it consumes a people by piecemeal: other judgments cut off suddenly, but this is a lingering and languishing death.
Lord! help us in the midst of our fulness, when we eat the fat, and drink the sweet, to remember how righteously thou mayst cut us short of our abused mercies. How is it that we have not long ago sinned away our plenty, who have so often sinned with our plenty?
2. Others understand the famine, here represented by the black horse, to be meant of a spiritual famine, a scarcity of the word of God, which fell out in the time of the ten persecutions, when the storm fell upon the bishops and most useful ministers in the church, when many bright and burning lamps were extinguished, others hid under a bushel: a dismal, gloomy day, when the church of God did eat her spiritual bread by weight, when all the spiritual food men could get to keep their souls alive from day to day could be but sufficient for that end.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
The black horse would seem to represent mourning. ( Jer 4:28 ) Food is sold by weight, with enough wheat for one man for one day selling for a day’s wages. ( Mat 20:2 ) He could buy three times as much barley for the same price and thus be able to feed his family, but what of life’s other necessities? The fact that oil and wine are not to be hurt may suggest God placed limitations on a famine. However, Hendricksen says no famine existed since a man evidently could get all the wheat he wanted if he had the money. In that case, the oil and wine would represent luxuries which would not stop flowing. The rest of Revelation seems to bear out deprivation especially for those who followed Christ.
Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books
Rev 6:5-6. And when he had opened the third seal I heard the third living creature Which was like a man, and had his station in the south; say As the two former had done; Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse A fit emblem of mourning and distress; particularly a black famine, as the ancient poets termed it. And he that sat on him had a pair of balances, or scales, in his hand Implying that men should eat their bread by weight, and drink their water by measure, or that there should be a great scarcity. For when there is great plenty men do not think it worth their while to weigh and measure what they eat and drink; but when there is a famine or scarcity they are obliged to do it. And I heard a voice It seems from God himself; in the midst of the four living creatures, saying, A measure of wheat for a penny, &c. As if he had said to the horseman, Hitherto shalt thou come, and no farther. Let there be a measure of wheat for a penny This may seem, to an English reader, a description of great plenty, but it certainly intends the contrary. The word , chnix, a Grecian measure, was only about equal to our quart, and was no more than was allowed to a slave for his daily food. And the Roman penny, the denarius, about 7d. English, was the usual daily wages of a labourer: so that, if a mans daily labour could earn no more than his daily bread, without other provision for himself and family, corn must needs bear a very high price. This must have been fulfilled when the Grecian measure and the Roman money were still in use, as also when that measure was the common measure, and this money the current coin. It was so in Egypt under Trajan. And three measures of barley for a penny Either barley was, in common, far cheaper among the ancients than wheat, or the prophecy mentions this as something peculiar. And see thou hurt not the oil and the wine Let there not be a scarcity of every thing. Let there be some provision left to supply the want of the rest. Lowman interprets this third seal of the scarcity in the time of the Antonines, from A.D. 138 to A.D. 193, and produces passages from Tertullian and the Roman historians, concerning the calamity the empire endured by scarcity in this period. But Bishop Newton supposes this third period commences with Septimius Severus, who was an emperor from the south, being a native of Africa; and was an enacter of just and equal laws, and very severe and implacable to offences; he would not suffer even petty larcenies to go unpunished; as neither would Alexander Severus in the same period, who was a most severe judge against thieves; and was so fond of the Christian maxim, Whatsoever you would not have done to you, do not you to another, that he commanded it to be engraven on the palace, and on the public buildings. These two emperors were also no less celebrated for the procuring of corn and oil, and other provisions; and for supplying the Romans with them, after they had experienced the want of them: thus repairing the neglects of former times, and correcting the abuses of former princes. The colour of the black horse befits the severity of their nature and their name, and the balances are the well-known emblem of justice, as well as an intimation of scarcity. And the proclamation for justice and judgment, and for the procuration of corn, oil, and wine, is fitly made by a creature like a man. This period continued during the reigns of the Septimian family, about forty-two years.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
6:5 {4} And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.
(4) The third sign with declaration is that God will destroy the world with famine, removing all food: which is by Synecdoche comprehended in wheat, barley, wine and oil.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
3. The third seal 6:5-6
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
A black horse followed symbolizing the ravage of war, namely, famine. Antichrist, the cause of this famine, again seems to be the rider (cf. Mat 24:7 b). He carries a pair of balance scales, a symbol of commerce, indicating his control of commodity prices.