Revelation 6

The first four seals

¹And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying, as with a voice of thunder: Come!^•²And I saw, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it had a bow; a crown was given to Him, and He went out conquering and to conquer.^•

³And when He opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying: Come!⁴Another horse came out, a red one. It was given to him who sat on it to take peace from the earth, and that people should slay one another; and a great sword was given to him.^•

⁵And when He opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying: Come! And I saw, and behold, a black horse, and he who sat on it had a balance in his hand.^•⁶And I heard something like a voice in the midst of the four living creatures, saying: A measure of wheat for a denarius, and three measures of barley for a denarius; and do not harm the oil and the wine.^•

⁷And when He opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying: Come!⁸And I saw, and behold, a pale horse, and he who sat on it had the name Death, and the grave was following 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.^•

The fifth seal

⁹And when He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the Word of God and because of the testimony that they held.^•¹⁰They cried out with a loud voice, saying: How long, O Sovereign, the Holy and True One, do You not judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?^•¹¹Then a white robe was given to each of them, and they were told to rest a little while longer, until the number of their fellow servants and of their brothers, who were about to be killed as they also had been, was completed.^•

The sixth seal

¹²And I saw when He opened the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the whole moon became like blood,^•¹³and the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when it is shaken by a great wind,^•¹⁴and heaven withdrew like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island were moved from their places.^•

¹⁵The kings of the earth, and the great ones, and the commanders, and the rich, and the mighty, and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains;^•¹⁶and they say to the mountains and to the rocks: Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who is seated on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb,^•¹⁷for the great day of Their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?^•

Notes

6:1 “Come”: Gr. ἔρχου. Variant: the Textus Receptus adds “and see” (καὶ βλέπε) in 6:1, 3, 5 and 7; Codex Sinaiticus and the Byzantine text have a similar addition (καὶ ἴδε); in the Byzantine text, in 6:1, 5 and 7. ↩
6:2 “He who sat”: the capital identifies the rider with the rider of the white horse in 19:11–16; in the book, “white”, “crown” and “conquer” are linked to Christ and His people (cf. 3:21; 5:5; 14:14). Another reading sees here a conquering power. “Bow”: Gr. τόξον. “Crown”: Gr. στέφανος, the victor’s crown (cf. 2:10; 3:11). “Conquering and to conquer”: Gr. νικῶν καὶ ἵνα νικήσῃ (cf. νικάω, 5:5). Horses of different colors: cf. Zech 1:8; 6:1–8. ↩
6:4 “Red”: Gr. πυρρός, lit. “fire-colored”. “Slay”: Gr. σφάζω, the same verb rendered “slain” in 5:6, 9, 12 and 6:9. “Sword”: Gr. μάχαιρα. ↩
6:5 “Balance”: Gr. ζυγός, lit. “yoke”, the beam of the scales. ↩
6:6 “Measure”: Gr. χοῖνιξ, a little more than a liter (about a quart). “Denarius”: a Roman silver coin (cf. Matt 20:2). “Do not harm”: Gr. ἀδικέω (cf. 2:11; 7:2–3; 9:4). Variant: the Byzantine text and the Textus Receptus read “a voice”, without “something like”. ↩
6:8 “Pale”: Gr. χλωρός, lit. “pale green” (cf. 8:7; 9:4, “green”). “The grave”: Gr. ᾅδης (cf. 1:18). “Sword”: here Gr. ῥομφαία (cf. 1:16). “Pestilence”: Gr. θάνατος, lit. “death”; the Septuagint uses the same word for “pestilence” in Ezek 14:21. Sword, famine, pestilence and wild beasts: cf. Ezek 14:21; Lev 26:22–26. Variant: the Byzantine text reads “was given to him” (singular); the Textus Receptus, like the SBLGNT, has the plural. ↩
6:9 “Altar”: Gr. θυσιαστήριον. “Souls”: Gr. ψυχαί, also “lives” (cf. Lev 4:7; 17:11). “Slain”: Gr. σφάζω (cf. 5:6). “Word of God… testimony”: cf. 1:2, 9. Variant: the Byzantine text reads “the testimony of the Lamb”. ↩
6:10 “Sovereign”: Gr. δεσπότης, “master, owner” (cf. Luke 2:29; Acts 4:24). “The Holy and True One”: cf. 3:7. “How long”: cf. Ps 79:5, 10; Zech 1:12. “Avenge… on”: Gr. ἐκδικέω… ἐκ, lit. “avenge… from” (cf. 19:2; Deut 32:43). “Those who dwell on the earth”: cf. 3:10. ↩
6:11 “Robe”: Gr. στολή, a long robe (cf. 7:9, 13–14; 22:14). “The number”: the Greek says only “until both their fellow servants and their brothers… were completed”. Variant: the Byzantine text reads “until they complete [their course]” (πληρώσωσιν). “Fellow servants”: Gr. σύνδουλοι (cf. 19:10; 22:9). Variant: the Textus Receptus reads “white robes were given to each”. ↩
6:12 “Earthquake”: Gr. σεισμός (cf. 8:5; 11:13, 19; 16:18). “Sackcloth of hair”: Gr. σάκκος τρίχινος, a dark cloth of hair, usually goat’s hair. Sun, moon and stars: cf. Joel 2:10, 31 (Heb. 3:4); Isa 13:10; Matt 24:29. Variant: the Textus Receptus reads “and behold, there was” and omits “whole”. ↩
6:13 “Casts”: Gr. βάλλω. “Unripe figs”: Gr. ὄλυνθοι, figs that fall before ripening. Cf. Isa 34:4. ↩
6:14 “Scroll”: Gr. βιβλίον, “book”, here the scroll that is rolled up (cf. 5:1; Isa 34:4). “Were moved”: plural in the Greek. ↩
6:15 “The great ones”: Gr. μεγιστᾶνες, the nobles. “Commanders”: Gr. χιλίαρχοι, lit. “commanders of a thousand”. “Slave”: Gr. δοῦλος, rendered “servant” in 1:1; here in contrast with “free” (cf. 13:16; 19:18). Cf. Isa 2:10, 19, 21. ↩
6:16 Cf. Hos 10:8; Luke 23:30. “Face”: Gr. πρόσωπον. ↩
6:17 “Their”: of Him who is seated on the throne and of the Lamb (6:16). Variant: Codex Alexandrinus, the Robinson-Pierpont Byzantine text and the Textus Receptus read “of His wrath”; the SBLGNT is followed, with Codex Sinaiticus and Ephraemi. “Stand”: Gr. σταθῆναι (cf. 5:6, the Lamb “standing”; Nah 1:6; Mal 3:2). “The great day”: cf. Joel 2:11; Zeph 1:14. ↩