Apocalipsis 6:6

6 Y oí como una voz en medio de los cuatro seres vivientes, que decía: «Un kilo de trigo, o tres kilos de cebada, por el salario de un día; pero no afectes el precio del aceite y del vino».^[a]

Apocalipsis 6:6 Meaning and Commentary

Revelation 6:6

And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say,
&c.] Not the voice of Agabus to the Apostle Paul, ( Acts 11:28 ) ; but rather of Christ, who was in the midst of them, ( Revelation 5:6 ) ; the Ethiopic version adds, "as the voice of an eagle":

a measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a
penny;
"Choenix", the measure here used, signifies as much as was sufficient for a man for one day, as a penny was the usual hire of a labourer for a day, ( Matthew 20:2 ) ; so a choenix of corn was allowed to each man in Xerxes's army for a day, according to Herodotus ^F4; the same quantity for a day was given by the Romans to their shepherds and servants, and is generally said to be about two pounds; according to Agricola it was two pounds and a quarter ^F5. This measure was very different; the Attic choenix was a measure that held three pounds, the Italic choenix four pounds, and the military choenix five pounds, and answers to the Hebrew Kab ^F6; and in the Septuagint version of ( Ezekiel 45:10 Ezekiel 45:11 ) ; it answers to the Bath; and some make it to be the fourth part of a bushel, and others half a bushel ^F7; the first account of its being about two pounds, and the allowance of a man for a day, seems best to agree with this place: so that this phrase expresses such a scarcity, as that a man's daily wages would be but just enough to buy himself bread, without any thing to eat with it; and when he would have nothing left for clothes, and other things, nor anything for his wife and children:

and [see] that thou hurt not the oil and wine;
signifying that this scarcity should fall not upon the superfluities, such as oil and wine, which may be spared, and men can live without; but upon the necessities of life, particularly bread: some render the words, "and be not unjust in the oil and wine"; and so think they refer to the laws of the Roman emperors, in relation to wine and oil, and to the just execution of them, that there might be plenty of them; and others understand them in an allegorical sense, of the principal doctrines of the Gospel, comparable to oil and wine, and which Christ takes care of, that they shall not be hurt and destroyed by heretics and false teachers, even when they prevail the most, and bring on a famine of the word, and when the church is blackened and darkened with them; and indeed these may much better be applied to the Gospel, than, as they are by the Jews, to the law; who frequently say ^F8 that the law is called "oil", and speak of (hrwt lv hnyy) , "the wine of the law" ^F9:

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FOOTNOTES:

F4 Polymnia, c. 187.
F5 De Mensuris Graecis, p. 120.
F6 Waserus de Mensuris, l. 2. c. 2. sect. 5, 6. & c. 3. sect. 6. & c. 7. sect. 6.
F7 Alex. ab Alex. Genial. Dier. l. 2. c. 20.
F8 Tzeror Hammor, fol. 85. 3. & 96. 1. & 97. 4. & 104. 1. & 105. 2. & 137. 2, 3.
F9 Zohar in Exod. fol. 51. 3. & in Deut. fol. 115. 3. Raya Mehimna in Zohar in Numb. fol. 94. 3. Shirhashirim Rabba, fol. 5. 3. Midrash Kohelet, fol. 64. 4.

Apocalipsis 6:6 In-Context

4 En eso salió otro caballo, de color rojo encendido. Al jinete se le entregó una gran espada; se le permitió quitar la paz de la tierra y hacer que sus habitantes se mataran unos a otros.

5 Cuando el Cordero rompió el tercer sello, oí al tercero de los seres vivientes, que gritaba: «¡Ven!» Miré, ¡y apareció un caballo negro! El jinete tenía una balanza en la mano.

6 Y oí como una voz en medio de los cuatro seres vivientes, que decía: «Un kilo de trigo, o tres kilos de cebada, por el salario de un día; pero no afectes el precio del aceite y del vino».

7 Cuando el Cordero rompió el cuarto sello, oí la voz del cuarto ser viviente, que gritaba: «¡Ven!»

8 Miré, ¡y apareció un caballo amarillento! El jinete se llamaba Muerte, y el Infierno lo seguía de cerca. Y se les otorgó poder sobre la cuarta parte de la tierra, para matar por medio de la espada, el hambre, las epidemias y las fieras de la tierra.

Footnotes

• [a]. "por el salario " "… " "vino" . Lit. "por un denario, y no dañes el aceite ni el vino" .