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Revelation 6
The Lamb breaks six of the seven seals on the scroll from chapter 5, and history starts unrolling. Four living creatures summon four riders in turn: a conqueror on white, slaughter on red, a balance and inflated grain prices on black, and a pale horse named Death with Hades trailing behind. Then the slain witnesses cry out from under the altar. Watch the seals build, not balance. The first four ride; the fifth asks "How long?"; the sixth tears the sky open. The chapter stops one seal short on purpose, leaving the question of verse 17 hanging.
- 1
I saw that 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 and see!”
- 2
Then a white horse appeared, and he who sat on it had a bow. A crown was given to him, and he came out conquering, and to conquer.
- 3
When he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, “Come!”
- 4
Another came out, a red horse. To him who sat on it was given power to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another. There was given to him a great sword.
- 5
When he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying, “Come and see!” And behold, a black horse, and he who sat on it had a balance in his hand.
- 6
I heard a voice in the middle of the four living creatures saying, “A choenix of wheat for a denarius, and three choenix of barley for a denarius! Don’t damage the oil and the wine!”
- 7
When he opened the fourth seal, I heard the fourth living creature saying, “Come and see!”
- 8
And behold, a pale horse, and the name of he who sat on it was Death. Hades followed with him. Authority over one fourth of the earth, to kill with the sword, with famine, with death, and by the wild animals of the earth was given to him.
- 9
When he opened the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been killed for the Word of God, and for the testimony of the Lamb which they had.
- 10
They cried with a loud voice, saying, “How long, Master, the holy and true, until you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”
- 11
A long white robe was given to each of them. They were told that they should rest yet for a while, until their fellow servants and their brothers, who would also be killed even as they were, should complete their course.
- 12
I saw when he opened the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake. The sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became as blood.
- 13
The stars of the sky fell to the earth, like a fig tree dropping its unripe figs when it is shaken by a great wind.
- 14
The sky was removed like a scroll when it is rolled up. Every mountain and island was moved out of its place.
- 15
The kings of the earth, the princes, the commanding officers, the rich, the strong, and every slave and free person, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains.
- 16
They told the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb,
- 17
for the great day of his wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”
The martyrs' question shapes the rest
Under the altar the souls killed for God's word ask how long until their blood is avenged. The answer is not yet: they receive white robes and are told to rest until the full number is complete. That delay, not the riders, is the engine of the book's pacing.
The sixth seal then answers their cry indirectly. Earthquake, blackened sun, falling stars, and kings begging the rocks to hide them from "the wrath of the Lamb" show the reckoning beginning, while the unopened seventh seal holds the silence for chapter 8.
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