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When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, "Come!" I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth. (Revelation 6:7-8) |
Pale: The colour is indefinite, "deficient in color or intensity of color" (Merriam-Webster) and tags those forces that do not belong to any of the three previous horses (e.g. the Covid-19 pandemic, tribal divisions, severe weather) yet can cause widespread death (e.g. the Rwandan genocide).
They were given power over a fourth of the earth: Death and Hades really exercise their power over the whole earth, but only over a fourth under the guise of the pale horse. The fraction ¼ suggests that every horse exercises authority over a quarter of the earth's population.