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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadBob Utley You Can Understand the Bible - Revelation 6:7 - 6:8
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Rev_6:7-8
7When the Lamb broke the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, "Come." 8I looked, and behold, an ashen horse; and he who sat on it had the name Death; and Hades was following with him. Authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by the wild beasts of the earth.
Rev_6:8
NASB "an ashen horse"
NKJV "a pale horse"
NRSV "pale green horse"
TEV "a pale-colored horse"
NJB "deathly horse"
The term "pale" referred to a yellowish green or off-white color. In English we get the word "chlorine" from this Greek word. It was possibly the color of a dead body. Because of the list of the means of death in Rev_6:8, this may refer to those killed or eaten by wild animals, which was one of the OT curses (cf. Lev_26:22; Jer_15:3; Eze_5:17; Eze_14:21).
▣ "he who sat on it had the name Death; and Hades was following" This is an OT allusion to Pro_5:5 or Hos_13:14. It is a personification of the terms for the termination of physical life. These two terms are used three times together in the Revelation (cf. Rev_1:18; Rev_20:13-14).
The term "Hades" is synonymous to the OT term "Sheol," which meant "the holding place of the dead." See hyperlink at Rev_1:18.
▣ "Authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth" Notice the pronoun "them" refers to all four horses and their riders. There is an intensification of the judgment in the trumpets (i.e.,one third, cf. Rev_8:7-8; Rev_8:10; Rev_8:12); there is complete destruction in the bowls (cf. Rev_16:1-21). These fractions are a literary device to show that God's judgments had a redemptive purpose (cf. Rev_9:20-21; Rev_14:7; Rev_16:9; Rev_16:11), but fallen, rebellious, hardened mankind would not respond (although a few may have, cf. Rev_11:13).
▣ "to kill with" These four horsemen represent the OT covenant judgments (cf. Lev_26:21-26; Jer_15:2-3; Jer_24:10; Jer_27:8; Jer_29:17-18; Jer_32:24; Jer_32:36; Jer_34:17; Eze_5:12; Eze_5:17; Eze_14:21; Amo_4:6-10). The term for "sword" is different from Rev_6:4. This refers to the large battle sword, hromphaia. All four of the OT judgments of war, famine, plague, and wild animals are listed in Lev_26:21-26 and Eze_14:21. These covenant judgments are clearly discussed in Deuteronomy 27-29. Remember, originally their purpose was to cause Israel to repent and turn back to YHWH. They function in that same redemptive sense here (cf. Rev_9:20-21; Rev_11:13; Rev_14:7; Rev_16:9; Rev_16:11).