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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadBob Utley You Can Understand the Bible - Revelation 6:5 - 6:6
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
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.
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▣ "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.