Apocalipse 6

ARC · Chapter 6/22

1E, havendo o Cordeiro aberto um dos sellos, olhei, e ouvi um dos quatro animaes, que dizia como com voz de trovão: Vem, e vê.

2E olhei, e eis um cavallo branco: e o que estava assentado sobre elle tinha um arco; e foi-lhe dada uma corôa, e saiu victorioso, para que vencesse.

3E, havendo aberto o segundo sello, ouvi o segundo animal, dizendo: Vem, e vê.

4E saiu outro cavallo, vermelho; e ao que estava assentado sobre elle foi dado que tirasse a paz da terra, e que se matassem uns aos outros; e foi-lhe dada uma grande espada.

5E, havendo aberto o terceiro sello, ouvi dizer ao terceiro animal: Vem, e vê. E olhei, e eis um cavallo preto: e o que sobre elle estava assentado tinha uma balança na sua mão.

6E ouvi uma voz no meio dos quatro animaes, que dizia: Uma medida de trigo por um dinheiro, e tres medidas de cevada por um dinheiro; e não damnifiques o azeite e o vinho.

7E, havendo aberto o quarto sello, ouvi a voz do quarto animal, que dizia: Vem e vê.

8E olhei, e eis um cavallo amarello, e o que estava assentado sobre elle tinha por nome Morte; e o inferno o seguiu; e foi-lhes dado poder para matar a quarta parte da terra, com espada, e com fome, e com mortandade, e com as feras da terra.

9E, havendo aberto o quinto sello, vi debaixo do altar as almas dos que foram mortos por amor da palavra de Deus e por amor do testemunho que deram.

10E clamavam com grande voz, dizendo: Até quando, ó Dominador, e sancto verdadeiro, não julgas e vingas o nosso sangue dos que habitam sobre a terra?

11E deram-se-lhes a cada um vestidos brancos compridos, e foi-lhes dito que repousassem ainda um pouco de tempo, até que tambem se completasse o numero de seus conservos e seus irmãos, que haviam de ser mortos como elles.

12E, havendo aberto o sexto sello, olhei, e eis que houve um grande tremor de terra; e o sol tornou-se negro como sacco de cilicio, e a lua tornou-se como sangue.

13E as estrellas do céu cairam sobre a terra, como quando a figueira lança de si os seus figos verdes, abalada por um vento forte.

14E o céu retirou-se como um livro que se enrola; e todos os montes e ilhas se moveram dos seus logares.

15E os reis da terra, e os grandes, e os ricos, e os tribunos, e os poderosos, e todo o servo, e todo o livre, se esconderam nas cavernas e nas rochas das montanhas;

16E diziam aos montes e aos rochedos: Cahi sobre nós, e escondei-nos do rosto d'aquelle que está assentado sobre o throno, e da ira do Cordeiro;

17Porque é vindo o grande dia da sua ira; e quem poderá subsistir?

📖 Chapter study

Summary

The Lamb begins to open the seven seals, releasing four symbolic horsemen — associated with conquest, war, famine, and death — followed by the souls of the martyrs crying out for justice, and finally great cosmic signs that terrify humanity.

Explanation

The so-called 'Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse' (white, red, black, and pale/yellow) have become one of the most famous images in all of world literature, symbolizing destructive forces that run throughout human history: military conquest, civil war, economic scarcity, and widespread death. The fifth seal reveals something emotionally moving: the souls of those who died for their faith, still awaiting God's full justice, showing that the book openly acknowledges the real suffering of the persecuted without minimizing it. The cosmic signs of the sixth seal — the sun darkened, the moon like blood, stars falling — use traditional Old Testament apocalyptic language (as in Joel 2 and Isaiah 13) to convey that God's judgment is imminent and all-encompassing. Today's application is that the book does not ignore real human suffering, but places it within a larger story moving toward God's final justice.

Fun facts

  • The expression 'the four horsemen of the apocalypse' became so popular in Western culture that it is still used today in entirely secular contexts — politics, sports, economics — to describe any set of four destructive or threatening forces.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Apocalipse 6:1This begins the sequence of the seven seals: each time the Lamb opens one, one of the four living creatures summons the next scene with the same command, “Come and see.”
  2. Apocalipse 6:2This rider opens a sequence of four, each tied to a type of disaster the readers of the time knew well: military conquest, war, famine, and death. It is not a fixed order predicting specific events; it is an ancient way of describing the great evils that always travel together with war.
  3. Apocalipse 6:3This repeats the formula of the first seal, now with the second living creature calling forth the scene of the second rider.
  4. Apocalipse 6:4The red horse and its rider represent war: the power to take peace from the earth and make people kill one another, a classic image of widespread armed conflict.
  5. Apocalipse 6:5This repeats the formula for the third time; the black horse and the balances in the rider's hand are symbols of scarcity, setting up the explanation of famine that comes in the next verse.
  6. Apocalipse 6:6A penny, or denarius, was the pay for a full day's work; spending that entire wage just to buy a day's ration of wheat shows a famine so severe that it consumes everything a person earns. Oil and wine, goods belonging to those with more possessions, remain untouched - the image of a crisis that weighs more heavily on the poor.
  7. Apocalipse 6:7This repeats the formula for the fourth and final time before the scene of the fourth rider.
  8. Apocalipse 6:8The fourth rider, named “Death,” with “Hell” (Hades, the realm of the dead) following behind, receives power over a fourth of the earth using sword, hunger, plague, and wild beasts - the four classic types of punishment already listed in prophecies such as Ezekiel 14.
  9. Apocalipse 6:9In the ancient temple, the blood of a sacrifice was poured out at the base of the altar; here the lives of those who died for their faith are described with the same image, as an offering poured out that still cries out for justice, similar to the blood of Abel crying out from the ground in Genesis.
  10. Apocalipse 6:10The cry “how long” is a common expression in psalms of lament, used here by martyrs asking God to bring justice for their spilled blood.
  11. Apocalipse 6:11The answer to this cry is not immediate: each one receives a white robe (a symbol already seen in the letters to the churches) and the instruction to wait, because the full number of martyrs had not yet been completed.
  12. Apocalipse 6:12A darkened sky, a red moon, and falling stars is language already found in Isaiah, Joel, and Ezekiel to describe all of creation being shaken - ancient readers recognized this as an image of a great upheaval, not as a literal description of astronomy.
  13. Apocalipse 6:13The image of stars falling like unripe figs shaken by a strong wind is a comparison to something well known to readers of the time - the moment when a fig tree drops fruit that is not yet ripe during a storm.
  14. Apocalipse 6:14The sky “rolled together as a scroll,” with mountains and islands moved out of place, echoes an image from Isaiah 34 about the total collapse of the natural order, used here to describe an upheaval of cosmic proportions.
  15. Apocalipse 6:15The list of social groups - kings, the rich, military commanders, slaves, and free people - shows that this fear spares no one: neither status nor power offers protection against what is about to happen.
  16. Apocalipse 6:16The scene of people begging for the mountains to fall on them echoes an image from the prophet Hosea. The effect here is one of reversal: the Lamb, a symbol of gentleness throughout the book, is precisely the One these groups are trying to hide from.
  17. Apocalipse 6:17The question “who shall be able to stand?” is deliberately left unanswered until the next chapter, which reveals exactly who manages to remain standing before this day of judgment.

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