Charles Ellicott Commentary Revelation 6:5-6

"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. 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." — Revelation 6:5-6 (ASV)

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 black horse, and he who sat on him had 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 do not hurt the oil and the wine.

“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 harmonizes with the balance, and the passage from Ezekiel (Ezekiel 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. (Compare Ezekiel 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 the 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 the English version, here and in Matthew 18:28, and Mark 12:37) amounted to between sixpence and sevenpence of our money, and was the usual daily pay of the laborer and of the soldier. (See especially Note on Matthew 20:2.) It is difficult to speak of this as other than terribly high prices for food. The whole of a man’s pay goes for food, and even the coarser bread is so expensive that it takes a whole day’s 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 that has already caused the greatest misery. The extent of the misery may be imagined by considering what wretchedness would be entailed if a man were 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 (Mark 6:37) that two hundred pennies' worth 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 risen so much that two hundred pennies' worth of bread would not suffice to feed one thousand.

But what is meant by the words, do not hurt the oil and wine? They were not, like bread, necessary to life, but among its luxuries and superfluities. There is a kind of irony in times of scarcity, when necessities are barely obtainable, and luxuries remain comparatively low in price. The splendors and comforts of life are undervalued when hunger shows that life is more than choice food, and the body more than clothing. The seal then tells the seer that throughout the ages the Church of Christ must expect to see famines and distress in the world, and luxuries abounding in the midst of hardship.

Is it not true that the contrast, which is so ugly, between pampered opulence and indolent pauperism, is the result of the prevalence of worldly principles? Wealth, self-indulgent and heartless, and poverty, reckless and self-willed, are sure signs 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, that love of barren dogmatics is developed which forgets the milk of the word and the bread of life, which are the needed food of souls.