Revelation 6:7-17

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Revelation 6:3-8

The next three seals give us a sad prospect of great and desolating judgments with which God punishes those who either refuse or abuse the everlasting gospel. Though some understand them of the persecutions that befel the church of Christ, and others of the destruction of the Jews, they rather seem more generally to represent God's terrible judgments, by which he avenges the quarrel of his covenant upon those who make light of it. I. Upon opening the second seal, to which John was called to... read more

Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Revelation 6:9-17

In the remaining part of this chapter we have the opening of the fifth and the sixth seals. I. The fifth seal. Here is no mention made of any one who called the apostle to make his observation, probably because the decorum of the vision was to be observed, and each of the four living creatures had discharged its duty of a monitor before, or because the events here opened lay out of the sight, and beyond the time, of the present ministers of the church; or because it does not contain a new... read more

William Barclay

William Barclay's Daily Study Bible - Revelation 6:1-8

As one by one the seals of the roll are opened, history unfolds itself before John's eyes. As we study this section, we must remember one general fact which is basic to its understanding. In this series of visions John is seeing in advance the end of terror and judgment which could bring in the golden age of God. Before we study the section in detail, we note one general point. In the first section of the visions, Revelation 6:1-8 , the King James Version consistently follows a form of... read more

William Barclay

William Barclay's Daily Study Bible - Revelation 6:1-8

6:1-8 And I saw when the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying with a loud voice like the sound of thunder, "Come!" And I saw, and, behold, a white horse, and he who was seated on it had a bow, and a conqueror's crown was given to him, and he went forth conquering and to conquer. And, when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, "Come!" And there came forth another horse blood-red in colour, and to... read more

William Barclay

William Barclay's Daily Study Bible - Revelation 6:9-11

6:9-11 When he opened the fifth seal, I saw beneath the altar the souls of those who had been stain for the sake of the word of God and because of the witness which they bore. And they cried with a loud voice: "How long, Lord, Holy and True, will you refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell upon the earth?" And to each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to rest for still a little while, until there should be completed the number of their fellow-servants... read more

William Barclay

William Barclay's Daily Study Bible - Revelation 6:9-11

There are three things in this section which we must note. (i) We have the eternal cry of the suffering righteous--"How long?" This was the cry of the Psalmist. How long were the heathen to be allowed to afflict God's righteous people? How long were they to be allowed to taunt his people by asking where God was and what he was doing? ( Psalms 79:5-10 ). The thing to remember is that when the saints of God uttered this cry, they were bewildered by God's seeming inactivity but they never... read more

William Barclay

William Barclay's Daily Study Bible - Revelation 6:12-14

6:12-14 I saw when he opened the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black like sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood; and the stars of the heaven fell upon the earth, as a fig-tree casts its figs, when it is shaken by a high wind; and the heavens were split like a roll that is rolled up, and the hills and islands were moved from their places. John is using pictures very familiar to his Jewish readers. The Jews always regarded the end as... read more

William Barclay

William Barclay's Daily Study Bible - Revelation 6:15-17

6:15-17 And the kings of the earth and the great ones and the captains and the rich and the strong, and every slave and every free person hid themselves in the caves and the rocks of the hills, and said to the mountains and to the rocks: "Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, because the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?" As John saw it in his vision, the end time was to be one of universal terror. Here... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Revelation 6:7

And when he had opened the fourth seal ,.... Of the seven seals of the sealed book; that is, when the Lamb had opened it, or took it off, as in Revelation 6:1 ; I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, come and see ; this living creature was that which was like an eagle, and was on the north side of the throne, answerable to the standard of Dan, which was on the north of the camp of Israel, and had the figure of an eagle upon it; and the opening of this seal begins with Maximinus the... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Revelation 6:8

And I looked, and behold a pale horse ,.... An emblem either of the state of the church, pale not with persecution, as some think, for through that it was red; but with the hypocrisy and superstition of many of its members, who were paving the way for the man of sin, and on account of whom the church was grown sickly and dying; or rather this is an emblem of the sickly and dying state of the Pagan Roman empire, through a complication of judgments upon it, hereafter mentioned, as war, famine,... read more

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