Words in italic type have been added for clarity. They are not found in the original Hebrew or Aramaic.

Revelation 6

The four horses of the apocalypse

Revelation 6:¹ Now I saw when the Lamb opened one of the (seven) seals; and I heard one of the four living creatures saying with a voice like thunder, “Come and see.”

Revelation 6:² And I looked, and behold, a white horse. He who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer.

Second Seal: Conflict on Earth

Revelation 6:³ When He opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, “Come and see.”

Revelation 6:⁴ Another horse, fiery red, went out. And it was granted to the one who sat on it to take peace from the earth, and that people should kill one another; and there was given to him a great sword.

Third Seal: Scarcity on Earth

Revelation 6:⁵ When He opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come and see.” So I looked, and behold, a black horse, and he who sat on it had a pair of scales (balances) in his hand.

Revelation 6:⁶ And I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, “A quart (Gr. choinix, about 1 quart) of wheat for a denarius (About 1 day’s wage for a worker), and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not harm the oil and the wine.”

Fourth Seal: Death and Hades

Revelation 6:⁷ When He opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, “Come and see.”

Revelation 6:⁸ So I looked, and behold, a pale (green: chlorophyll) horse. And the name of him who sat on it was Death, and Hades followed with him. And power (authority) was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword (conflict), with hunger (famine), with death, and by the beasts of the earth.

• The meaning of the pale horse is pale yellow or tender green like grass. Green is the color of life. 
  Such a striking contrast to have the black shroud of death riding on a horse called life.
  
• Consider the Hebrew meanings for “Life” and then “Death”
• Life: Strong’s G5514 – chloē
  • Chloe = “a green herb”
• Death: Strong’s G2288 – thanatos
  • the death of the body
    1. that separation (whether natural or violent) of the soul and the body by which the life on earth is ended
    2. with the implied idea of future misery in hell
    3. the power of death
    4. since the nether world, the abode of the dead, was conceived as being very dark, it is equivalent to the region of thickest darkness i.e. figuratively, a region enveloped in the darkness of ignorance and sin
  • metaph., the loss of that life which alone is worthy of the name,
    1. the misery of the soul arising from sin, which begins on earth but lasts and increases after the death of the body in hell
    2. the miserable state of the wicked dead in hell
    3. in the widest sense, death comprising all the miseries arising from sin, as well physical death as the loss of a life consecrated to God and blessed in him on earth, to be followed by wretchedness in hell
• Hell: Strong’s G86 – adēs
  • From Strong’s G1 (as negative particle) and Strong’s G1492; properly, unseen, i.e. “Hades” or the place (state) of departed souls:—grave, hell.
  • From Strong’s G1 – alpha (the beginning) and Strong’s G1492 – eidō (to see, perceive, know, experience, the force and meaning of something which has definite meaning)
    
  • In other words the meaning of Hell implies: Seeing, being exposed to and experiencing the negative (horrors of) this reality for the first time.
    
  • Hell is as real as Death.
    
• Who is in control of Hell and Death? “Rev 1:17 I am He who lives, and was dead and behold I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death
• Exodus 3:14 And God said to Moses, “I AM (hāyâ) WHO I AM (hāyâ).” And He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ”
  • He is the sustainer of life. He said of Himself, John 11:17 “I Am the Resurrection (to be quickened) and the Life,” and He exists forever in Eternality.
    

Fifth Seal: The Cry of the Martyrs

Revelation 6:⁹ When He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held.

Revelation 6:¹⁰ And they cried with a loud voice, saying, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”

Revelation 6:¹¹ Then a white robe was given to each of them; and it was said to them that they should rest a little while longer, until both the number of their fellow servants and their brethren, who would be killed as they were, was completed.

Sixth Seal: Cosmic

Revelation 6:¹² I looked when He opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood (whole moon).

Revelation 6:¹³ And the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind.

Revelation 6:14 Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up (Or split apart), and every mountain and island was moved out of its place (earthquake).

Revelation 6:¹⁵ And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains,

Revelation 6:¹⁶ and said to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb.

Revelation 6:¹⁷ For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand.

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THE OVERVIEW OF THE TRIBULATION