3rd Seal - The black horse
The black horse brought with it famine and diseases, the results of wars.
Food being weighed means food has become scarce.
Background Reading:
Revelation 6:5-6
The 3rd seal The Black Horse
The third Seal: famines caused by the first two seals - Matthew 24:7
5 When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, "Come!" I looked, and there before me was aa black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. 6 Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, "bA liter of wheat for a cday's wages, and dthree liters of barley for a day's wages, and edo not damage the oil and the wine!"
a. This is a symbol of famine
which is the result of the conquest and wars of the first two
seals.
Cf Lamentations 4:4-8; Matthew 24:7
b. Bread by measure and weight signify scarcity of food (Ezekiel 4:10-17)
c. 17c. the daily wage (Matthew 20:1-16)
d. A measure was about 1 liter, a slave's daily ration, an amount usually
purchased for about two cents.
One could usually buy 8 measures of wheat or 24 measures of barley for two cents, but during this future famine
only 1 measure of wheat or 3 measures of
barley can be purchased for two cents.
This will make food 8 times higher than in
normal times.
e. The olives and grapes need no cultivation; hence their ruthless destruction is forbidden.