Commentaries:
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown
a voice--Two oldest manuscripts, A, C, read, "as it were a voice." B reads as English Version. The voice is heard "in the midst of the four living creatures" (as Jehovah in the Shekinah-cloud manifested His presence between the cherubim); because it is only for the sake of, and in connection with, His redeemed, that God mitigates His judgments on the earth.
A measure--"A chœnix." While making food scarce, do not make it so much so that a chœnix (about a day's provision of wheat, variously estimated at two or three pints) shall not be obtainable "for a penny" (denarius, eight and a half pence of our money, probably the day's wages of a laborer). Famine generally follows the sword. Ordinarily, from sixteen to twenty measures were given for a denarius. The sword, famine, noisome beasts, and the pestilence, are God's four judgments on the earth. A spiritual famine, too, may be included in the judgment. The "Come," in the case of this third seal, is said by the third of the four living creatures, whose likeness is a man indicative of sympathy and human compassion for the sufferers. God in it tempers judgment with mercy. Compare Matthew 24:7, which indicates the very calamities foretold in these seals, nation rising against nation (the sword), famines, pestilences (Revelation 6:8), and earthquakes (Revelation 6:12).
three measures of barley for a penny--the cheaper and less nutritious grain, bought by the laborer who could not buy enough wheat for his family with his day's wages, a denarius, and, therefore, buys barley.
see thou hurt not the oil, and the wine--the luxuries of life, rather than necessaries; the oil and wine were to be spared for the refreshment of the sufferers.
Other commentary entries containing this verse:
Zechariah 6:2
Revelation 6:12
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