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Revelation 6

KJV · Chapter 6/22

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?

📖 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. Revelation 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. Revelation 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. Revelation 6:3This repeats the formula of the first seal, now with the second living creature calling forth the scene of the second rider.
  4. Revelation 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. Revelation 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. Revelation 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. Revelation 6:7This repeats the formula for the fourth and final time before the scene of the fourth rider.
  8. Revelation 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. Revelation 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. Revelation 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. Revelation 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. Revelation 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. Revelation 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. Revelation 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. Revelation 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. Revelation 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. Revelation 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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