Alcuin of York — on Rev 6:5 (COMMENTARY ON REVELATION)

“And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying: Come, and see. And behold a black horse, and he that sat on him had a pair of scales in his hand. By the blackness of this horse is represented that hunger of the wicked by which they long to devour eagerly the body of Christ and to send it into the stomach of their evilness. Their rider has a pair of scales in his hand because he seeks to buy the lives of the good with temporal payments in order to be able to satiate his hunger and that of his people. He held this pair of scales in his hand when he offered one fruit to eat, and bought the whole world to cause its ruin. One should know indeed that the Devil first takes away the food that consists of hearing the Word of God, so that he may the more easily absorb people to increase his body when they suffer from starvation because they are deprived of spiritual food; whence the Lord says through the prophet, Behold I will send forth a famine into the land: not a famine of bread, nor a thirst of water, but of hearing the word of God. [Am. 8:11] Indeed the Lord does this by forsaking people, and the Devil by invading them. Yet how could those who are God's grain, wine, and oil, suffer from this famine? No; let the chaff, husks, and oil dregs suffer from it, and let them, who are worth no price, fall in with the pair of scales; not those who have been redeemed by the blood of Christ; whence it is said soon after that:”