5, 6. _And when he had opened the third seal._. Unfolding another portion of the volume. See Notes on ch. v. 1. ¶ _I heard the third beast say, Come and see._ See Notes on ch. iv. 7. It is not apparent why the _third_ beast is represented as taking a particular interest in the opening of _this_ seal (comp. Notes on ver. 3), nor is it necessary to show why it was so. The general design seems to have been, to represent each one of the four living creatures as interested in the opening of the seals, but the _order_ in which they did this does not seem to be a matter of importance. ¶ _And I beheld, and lo, a black horse._ The specifications of the symbol here are the following: (a) As before, the horse. See Notes on ver. 2. (b) The _colour_ of the horse: _lo, a black horse_. This would properly denote distress and calamity――for _black_ has been regarded always as such a symbol. So Virgil speaks of _fear_ as black: “atrumque timorem” (_Æn._ ix. 619). So again, _Georg._ iv. 468: “Caligantem nigra formidine lucum.” So, as applied to the dying Acca, _Æn._ xi. 825: “Tenebris nigrescunt omnia circum.” Black, in the Scriptures, is the image of fear, of famine, of death. La. v. 10: “Our skin was black like an oven, because of the terrible famine.” Je. xiv. 2: “Because of the drought Judah mourneth, and the gates thereof languish; they are in deep mourning [literally, _black_] for the land.” Joel ii. 6: “All faces shall gather blackness.” Na. ii. 10: “The knees smite together, and there is great pain in all loins, and the faces of them all gather blackness.” Comp. Re. vi. 12; Eze. xxxii. 7. See also Bochart, _Hieroz._ P. i. lib. ii. c. vii. pp. 106, 107. From the _colour_ of the horse here introduced we should naturally look for some dire calamity, though the _nature_ of the calamity would not be designated by the mere use of the word _black_. What the calamity was to be must be determined by what follows in the symbol. Famine, pestilence, oppression, heavy taxation, tyranny, invasion――any of these might be denoted by the colour of the horse. (c) The balances: _and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand_. The original word here rendered _a pair {150} of balances_, is ζυγὸν. This word properly means _a yoke_, serving to couple anything together, as a yoke for cattle. Hence it is used to denote the _beam_ of a balance, or of a pair of scales――and is evidently so used here. The idea is, that something was to be _weighed_, in order to ascertain either its _quantity_ or its _value_. Scales or balances are the emblems of justice or equity (comp. Job xxxi. 6; Ps. lxii. 9; Pr. xi. 1; xvi. 11); and when joined with symbols that denote the sale of corn and fruit by weight, become the symbol of scarcity. Thus “bread by weight” (Le. xxvi. 26) denotes scarcity. So in Eze. iv. 16, “And they shall eat bread by weight.” The use of balances here as a symbol would