Revelation 6King James Version
The seven seals begin to be opened. The four horsemen ride out: white, red, black, pale. Death rides the pale horse, and Hell follows with him. The fifth seal: the souls under the altar. The sixth: a great earthquake, the sun becomes black as sackcloth, the moon as blood. The kings of the earth hide themselves: hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne.
The Lamb opens six seals. The first four release four horsemen: a white horse whose rider conquers, a red horse that takes peace from the earth, a black horse whose rider holds scales of scarcity, and a pale horse named Death with Hell following behind, given power over a quarter of the earth. The fifth seal reveals souls under the altar, martyrs crying out for justice and told to wait a little longer. The sixth seal brings cosmic catastrophe: earthquake, black sun, blood moon, falling stars, and every human being hiding from the wrath of the Lamb.
History is not merely history: behind war, famine, economic oppression, and death, the seals suggest an order to events, and behind every catastrophe is a question no one can answer by hiding in caves.
17: "For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?" The question ends the chapter unanswered. Chapter 7 answers it.
The opening of each seal is announced by one of the four living creatures saying Come and see. The whole vision is structured as a guided tour of what the scroll contains. The falling stars in the sixth seal use the same Greek word used elsewhere for figs dropping in an early-season storm: sudden, complete, unstoppable.
The four horsemen, unnamed except Death; the souls under the altar, martyrs given white robes and told their vindication is coming; kings, generals, the wealthy, the powerful, the slave and the free, all equally terrified under the sixth seal.
The four horsemen draw heavily from Zechariah 1 and 6. The pale horse's color in Greek is chloros, meaning pale or ashen green, the color of a corpse. The martyrs under the altar echo the Jewish understanding that sacrificial blood was poured at the base of the altar. Their cry for justice is not answered with revenge but with rest and white robes.
For when the question is not whether suffering is real but whether it means anything, whether anyone is keeping count. The souls under the altar are told explicitly that they are not forgotten and that a reckoning is coming, just not yet.
1And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see.
2And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.
3And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see.
4And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword.
5And 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.
6And 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.
7And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.
8And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. 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.
9And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:
10And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?
11And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.
12And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood;
13And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.
14And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.
15And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains;
16And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:
17For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?