Verse-by-verse Bible study through Revelation 6 (Chazon Yochanan), read aloud from the Literal Standard Version with Greek manuscript evidence under every verse.
THE NAMES: YudHeyVavHey (יהוה) — the Father’s personal name, printed as “LORD” in most English Bibles. Yehoshua (“YudHeyVavHey saves”) — His Son, “Jesus” in English. HaMashiach — “the Anointed One” (“Christ”). Ruach — Spirit. Elohim — God. We use these Hebraic forms in reverence.
STUDY NOTES — [brackets] mark helper words; Hebrew verbatim from the Tanakh.
6:1 — א, A, C.
Lit: “And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying with [a] voice of thunder: Come!”
6:2 — א, A, C.
Lit: “and I looked, and behold [a] white horse, and its rider having [a] bow, and [a] crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and so that he might conquer.”
Heb, Zech 6:3: סוּסִים לְבָנִים
6:3 — א, A, C.
Lit: “And when he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying: Come!”
6:4 — א, A, C.
Lit: “and another horse went out, fiery-red, and to its rider was given to take the peace from the earth, and so that they will slaughter one another — and [a] great sword was given to him.”
Heb, Zech 6:2: סוּסִים אֲדֻמִּים
6:5 — א, A, C.
Lit: “And when he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying: Come! Behold [a] black horse, and its rider having [a] balance-scale in his hand.”
Heb, Zech 6:2: סוּסִים שְׁחֹרִים
6:6 — א, A, C.
Lit: “and I heard [a] voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying: [A] choenix of wheat for [a] denarius, and three choenixes of barley for [a] denarius; and the oil and the wine do not harm.”
Heb, Lev 26:26: בַּמִּשְׁקָל
6:7 — א, A, C, P24vid.
Lit: “And when he opened the fourth seal, I heard [the] voice of the fourth living creature saying: Come!”
6:8 — א, A, C (A alone: ὁ Ἀθάνατος).
Lit: “and I looked, and behold [a] pale horse, and the [one] sitting upon it — his name [was] Death — and Hades was following with him, and authority was given to them over the fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, famine, death, and the wild beasts of the earth.”
Heb, Ezek 14:21: אַרְבַּעַת שְׁפָטַי הָרָעִים
6:9 — א, A, C.
Lit: “And when he opened the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of the [ones] slain because of the word of Elohim and because of the testimony which they were holding.”
6:10 — א, A, C.
Lit: “and they cried with [a] great voice, saying: Until when, the Master, the Holy and True [One], do you not judge and avenge our blood from the [ones] dwelling on the earth?”
Heb, Zech 1:12: עַד־מָתַי
6:11 — א, A, C.
Lit: “and [a] white robe was given to each of them, and it was said to them to rest yet [a] little while, until their fellow servants and their brothers — the [ones] about to be killed even as they — should be made complete.”
6:12 — א, A, C.
Lit: “And I saw when he opened the sixth seal, and [a] great earthquake came, and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the whole moon as blood,”
Heb, Joel 2:31: הַשֶּׁמֶשׁ יֵהָפֵךְ לְחֹשֶׁךְ וְהַיָּרֵחַ לְדָם
6:13 — א, A, C.
Lit: “and the stars of the heaven fell to the earth, as [a] fig tree casts its unripe figs shaken by [a] great wind,”
Heb, Isa 34:4: וּכְנֹבֶלֶת מִתְּאֵנָה
6:14 — א, A, C.
Lit: “and the heaven was parted as [a] scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island moved out of their places.”
Heb, Isa 34:4: וְנָגֹלּוּ כַסֵּפֶר הַשָּׁמָיִם
6:15 — א, A, C.
Lit: “and the kings of the earth, the great men, the commanders-of-thousands, the rich, the strong, and every slave and free [man] hid themselves into the caves and the rocks of the mountains;”
Heb, Isa 2:19: מִפְּנֵי פַּחַד יְהוָה
6:16 — א, A, C.
Lit: “and they say to the mountains and to the rocks: Fall on us, hide us from [the] face of the [One] on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb,”
Heb, Hos 10:8: נִפְלוּ עָלֵינוּ
6:17 — א, A, C.
Lit: “because the great day of their wrath came, and who is able to stand?”
Heb, Joel 2:11: וּמִי יְכִילֶנּוּ
THEN AND NOW — how they lived it (Revelation 6)
6:1-2 — “a white horse… having a bow, and a crown was given to him”
The Lamb breaks the first seal, and a living creature calls “Come!” with a voice like thunder. In John’s day a horse meant war — the cavalry, the chariot force, the army’s striking arm. A rider with a bow is a warrior; the crown given to him marks a victor. And this was not a new picture: Zechariah had already seen white horses among his night visions — “white horses” (Zech 6:3). He rides out conquering and to conquer.
6:3-4 — “another horse, fiery-red… and a great sword was given to him”
Zechariah’s visions also held “red horses” (Zech 6:2). This rider is given to take the peace from the earth, so that they slaughter one another — and he is given a great sword. In that world the sword was the soldier’s weapon, and “taking peace” is the plain picture of war: neighbor turning on neighbor.
6:5-6 — “a black horse… having a balance-scale in his hand”
Black horses too stood in Zechariah’s visions (Zech 6:2). The rider holds a balance — the merchant’s scales, the kind that weighed grain in the market. And the voice from among the living creatures sets the price: “a choenix of wheat for a denarius, and three choenixes of barley for a denarius.” A choenix was the daily grain ration of a man — about a liter (Ezek 45:10). A denarius was the standard Roman silver coin — a day’s wage for a laborer (Matt 20:2). So a day’s food for a day’s wage: famine prices. Barley was the coarser, cheaper grain — three measures of it for the same wage barely stretches. When Israel was warned of famine, Moses told them their bread would come “by weight” (Lev 26:26) — weighed out in the scales, measured mouthful by mouthful. “And the oil and the wine do not harm”: oil and wine were the everyday staples of that world — food, light, medicine — but why they are spared here, the verse does not say.
6:7-8 — “a pale horse, and the one sitting upon it — his name was Death — and Hades was following with him”
The fourth horse is pale — the pale green of a corpse, the Greek word for green grass and new growth. Death rides, and Hades — the place of the dead — follows behind him. Authority is given them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, famine, death, and the wild beasts of the earth — the same four judgments God pronounced over Jerusalem: “my four evil judgments — sword, and famine, and the evil beast, and pestilence” (Ezek 14:21).
6:9-10 — “underneath the altar the souls of the ones slain”
When the fifth seal breaks, John sees the souls of those slain for the word of Elohim under the altar. His readers knew the temple courts: the blood of the sacrifices was poured out at the base of the altar of burnt offering (Lev 4:7) — the place where the slain was poured out is where the slain ones are seen. They cry with a great voice: “Until when, the Master, the Holy and True One, do you not judge and avenge our blood?” — reaching back to Zechariah’s angel: “Until when” (Zech 1:12).
6:11 — “a white robe was given to each of them”
White garments were festive dress — worn at celebrations and by those honored: “let your garments always be white” (Eccl 9:8). They are told to rest yet a little while, until their fellow servants and brothers — those about to be killed even as they were — should be made complete.
6:12 — “the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the whole moon as blood”
The sixth seal breaks and the sky itself changes. Sackcloth was the coarse dark cloth of goats’ hair — the uniform of grief, fasting, and repentance across the ancient world, first worn by Jacob when he believed Joseph dead (Gen 37:34). The sun goes dark as mourning cloth; the moon turns blood-red. Joel foretold it: “the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood” (Joel 2:31).
6:13-14 — “the stars of the heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts its unripe figs shaken by a great wind”
Isaiah had seen it: the host of heaven falling “as the withered leaf falls from a fig tree” (Isa 34:4). In John’s hot land everyone knew the fig tree — when the wind shook it, the unripe figs dropped to the ground. “And the heaven was parted as a scroll being rolled up”: scrolls were papyrus or parchment wound on rods, and a rolled-up scroll pulls away and is gone. The sky is pulled back like a rolled scroll, “and every mountain and island moved out of their places” (Isa 34:4).
6:15-17 — “the kings of the earth, the great men… and every slave and free man hid themselves into the caves”
The whole ladder of the Roman world — from kings and rich men down to slave and free — hiding alike in the caves and rocks of the mountains. “They shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, from before the terror of YudHeyVavHey” (Isa 2:19). They cry to the mountains: “Fall on us, hide us” (Hos 10:8) — from the face of the One on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. “Because the great day of their wrath came, and who is able to stand?” — Joel asked it: “who can abide it?” (Joel 2:11).
WHERE THIS HAPPENED: John received this on Patmos (Rev 1:9) — a small rocky island in the Aegean Sea, off the coast of what is today Turkey, where Rome exiled him.
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