Revelation 6:5,6 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

And when he had opened the third seal I heard the third living creature Which was like a man, and had his station in the south; say As the two former had done; Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse A fit emblem of mourning and distress; particularly a black famine, as the ancient poets termed it. And he that sat on him had a pair of balances, or scales, in his hand Implying that men should eat their bread by weight, and drink their water by measure, or that there should be a great scarcity. For when there is great plenty men do not think it worth their while to weigh and measure what they eat and drink; but when there is a famine or scarcity they are obliged to do it. And I heard a voice It seems from God himself; in the midst of the four living creatures, saying, A measure of wheat for a penny, &c. As if he had said to the horseman, Hitherto shalt thou come, and no farther. Let there be a measure of wheat for a penny This may seem, to an English reader, a description of great plenty, but it certainly intends the contrary. The word χοινιξ, chœnix, a Grecian measure, was only about equal to our quart, and was no more than was allowed to a slave for his daily food. And the Roman penny, the denarius, about 7½ d. English, was the usual daily wages of a labourer: so that, if a man's daily labour could earn no more than his daily bread, without other provision for himself and family, corn must needs bear a very high price. This must have been fulfilled when the Grecian measure and the Roman money were still in use, as also when that measure was the common measure, and this money the current coin. It was so in Egypt under Trajan. And three measures of barley for a penny Either barley was, in common, far cheaper among the ancients than wheat, or the prophecy mentions this as something peculiar. And see thou hurt not the oil and the wine Let there not be a scarcity of every thing. Let there be some provision left to supply the want of the rest. Lowman interprets this third seal of the scarcity in the time of the Antonines, from A.D. 138 to A.D. 193, and produces passages from Tertullian and the Roman historians, concerning the calamity the empire endured by scarcity in this period. But Bishop Newton supposes this third period commences with Septimius Severus, who was an emperor from the south, being a native of Africa; and was an enacter of just and equal laws, and very severe and implacable to offences; he would not suffer even petty larcenies to go unpunished; as neither would Alexander Severus in the same period, who was a most severe judge against thieves; and was so fond of the Christian maxim, Whatsoever you would not have done to you, do not you to another, that he commanded it to be engraven on the palace, and on the public buildings. These two emperors were also no less celebrated for the procuring of corn and oil, and other provisions; and for supplying the Romans with them, after they had experienced the want of them: thus repairing the neglects of former times, and correcting the abuses of former princes. The colour of the black horse befits the severity of their nature and their name, and the balances are the well-known emblem of justice, as well as an intimation of scarcity. And the proclamation for justice and judgment, and for the procuration of corn, oil, and wine, is fitly made by a creature like a man. This period continued during the reigns of the Septimian family, about forty-two years.