The Third Seal

Now follows what we might expect — God’s judgment in the way of scarcity or famine. It is a further scene of mourning and sorrow, as indicated by a black horse, and the rider having a pair of balances in his hand. The voice in the midst of the four living creatures says,
A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny {Rev. 6:6}:
this shows a dearth or scarcity of the staff of life. “A penny,” or denarius, would be the amount of a labourer’s daily earnings, and “a measure of wheat,” or a chœnix of wheat, the smallest daily allowance granted to a slave. It has been thought by some, that because the barley and wheat harvests are earlier than the ingathering of the fruit of the vine and olive, this judgment of dearth would be limited to the two former; and therefore it is said,
Hurt not [or injure not] the oil and the wine {Rev. 6:6}.
However this may be, it is clear that we are to understand that it is a scarcity of the necessaries of life, a time of famine.