And when it opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying, Come [and see]. And I saw and behold, a black horse, and he that sat upon it having a balance in his hand.
Three seals in, the rider now carries not a bow or a sword but a scale, and the sound that follows is a voice pricing bread. What does a black horse with scales stand for? And why does that same voice guard the oil and the wine?
The horse's colour tells the story before any price is named. One writer explains what it signals:
The third horse is black, the colour of mourning. The colour tells us that sorrows of a special kind must follow next — caused now not by bloodshed, but by scarcity... A denarius was the daily wage. It was hardly enough for one man's daily food. The choenix of wheat seems to have been a bare minimum, since it was the ration given to a slave... God is laying His hand upon the world.
The scales mean food handed out by weight. One writer ties the image to an older siege:
The "pair of scales" in the rider's hand recalls Ezekiel's prophecy about the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar's army: "I will break the supply of bread in Jerusalem, and they shall eat bread by weight and with anxiety..." (Ezek. 4:16.) It is an image that points straight to scarcity. The prices also show how extraordinarily dear the commonest necessities had become. They run at about eight times the rate current at that time.
The prices in the next verse make the picture concrete. One writer works the cost out in wages:
Here we have the "high cost of living" pushed to the limit. A "measure" (choenix) was about a quart, and counted as one person's ration for a day. A "penny," as we know from the parable of the labourers (Matt. 20), was a day's wage... So we reach this appalling conclusion. In these coming days of unmatched scarcity, a working man's whole day's earnings will buy just enough food for himself — or for one other person besides himself, if he will eat the coarser food (barley). But what is to become of his family, his children, or others who depend on him?
The famine does not fall evenly. One writer marks the dividing line:
The Third Seal gives us the black horse and the pair of scales in his hand. This speaks of what usually follows a bloody war: famine. Notice the necessities of the poor — wheat and barley — at impossible prices. Meanwhile the luxuries of the rich — the oil and the wine — go untouched.
None of this looks supernatural from the ground:
The opening of the first four seals is directly connected with the four living creatures, who are not mentioned in the last three seals. The living creatures seem to stand for God's governmental dealings in providential ways. So however terrible the judgments under the first four seals, nothing in them will show a direct, miraculous intervention by God. They will not be unlike events that have happened many times in the history of the world. They may, though, surpass in intensity anything that has yet taken place.
It is the third living creature, the one with a human face, that summons this rider. One writer draws a moral link between that face and hunger:
The face of a man suggests intelligence, sympathy and all that is truly human... Our Lord fed the poor. Because of His rejection, the third creature calls forth the third rider, who stands for famine (Rev. 6:5-6). In the Gospel of Luke we have the parable of the great supper and the Father's feast for the son who comes home. Where these are refused, a famine must come — not only for the individual, but for the world which has rejected Him.
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- Colour — Black is the shade of mourning. The horse announces the coming sorrow before any price is named: scarcity, not bloodshed.
- Scales — Balances mean bread handed out by weight. It is Ezekiel's old siege picture: food measured out because there is not enough.
- Price — A day's full wage buys one person's daily ration; a man can feed himself, but not his children.
- Line — The famine falls unequally. The poor man's wheat and barley are out of reach. The rich man's oil and wine go untouched.
- Restraint — These blows come through providence, not yet open miracle. The world has known such times before. God's hand is on it inside what still looks like ordinary history.
And I heard as a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, A choenix of wheat for a denarius, and three choenixes of barley for a denarius and do not injure the oil and the wine.
The third seal opens on a black horse, and its rider holds a pair of scales. A voice then prices a day's bread at a day's wage. How bad is this famine? And why does the voice spare the oil and the wine when grain goes out by weight?
Each horse in this series carries its own meaning.
The white horse is the symbol of power in victory. The red horse stands for power in bloodshed. The black horse points to power that brings in a time of grief and mourning. Here, as in Zechariah 6:2, the black horse follows the red. "Our skin was black," says the weeping prophet, "like an oven because of the terrible famine" (see Lam. 5:10; Jer. 4:28; Jude 13, etc., for the symbolic force of this colour).
The scales are not a sign of fair trading. They recall a siege, where food was so short that people weighed out every scrap.
The scales in the rider's hand recall what Ezekiel said about the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar's army: "I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem: and they shall eat bread by weight, and with care; and they shall drink water by measure, and with astonishment." (Ezek. 4:16.) It is a picture that strongly suggests scarcity. The prices given also show how dear the commonest necessities of life had become. They work out at about eight times the going rate of the time.
A modern reader hears "penny" and thinks of something small. The original figures say the opposite. A choenix is the quart of wheat the verse names.
In our country a penny suggests something of no great value. But in those times and places, a choenix of wheat for a denarius was very dear. Not long before, a man could buy seven or eight choenixes for that money. A denarius was the daily wage, and it was barely enough for one man's daily food. The choenix of wheat seems to have been a minimum, since it was the ration given to a slave.
The prices also tell us who ate what, and who could not earn at all.
Barley was generally eaten by slaves and the poor, being much cheaper than wheat and of a coarser kind. Here a denarius buys only one measure of wheat — just barely enough, and no more, to keep a person alive. But what about the many aged people, women and children who cannot work? If a denarius can only buy the food one person needs, what about the crowds who cannot work through weakness or other disability?
Commentators differ over the sparing of the oil and the wine. Some see God holding the famine back.
But while there is widespread desolation and want, God thinks of the needs of His creatures, and limits the effects of the famine by sparing the oil and the wine.
Others reject that reading and ask who really goes hungry.
People could not live on oil and wine. Wheat and barley are essentials. People saw oil and wine as luxuries, found only on the tables of the rich (Prov. 21:17; Jer. 31:12; Ps. 104:15). So the punishment under this Seal falls mainly on the working classes. The rich and the ruling classes are clearly left out. But they will not escape. Under the sixth Seal (vv. 12-17) judgment falls on all alike, from the ruler down to the slave.
The living creatures announce the famine. But the voice has a deeper source.
But the living creatures are not themselves the source of this providential chastisement. They are closely connected with the throne (Rev. 4:6), but God is the One who sits on it, and always will be. The one who sees the vision hears a voice from the very centre, from the throne of the Eternal, announcing a famine. God Himself is the source of these early, providential judgments on people on earth.
One writer sees a further lesson behind an ordinary famine.
So an ordinary famine is meant here. Yet, as already said, there is a further link. The natural is everywhere a picture of the spiritual, and it depends on the spiritual as the lesser depends on the greater. So our everyday mercies are ours through Christ alone. Take away the one, the other goes. A natural famine is the fitting result of rejecting spiritual food. With the substance goes the shadow also.
- Colour — Black is the colour of mourning, and it follows the red horse of bloodshed. War has run its course, and hunger is what it leaves behind.
- Balance — The scales mean bread handed out by weight, as in Ezekiel's siege prophecy. Food counted grain by grain is famine, not trade.
- Price — A denarius was a day's wage; a choenix was a slave's ration. So a full day's work buys one person's survival, and nothing for those who cannot work.
- Limit — The oil and wine are untouched. Commentators differ: is this God holding the famine back, or the rich escaping what crushes the poor? Either way, the sixth seal spares no one.
- Throne — The voice comes from the centre, where God sits. This hunger is not blind economics but His hand — and behind lost bread stands rejected spiritual food.