Revelation 6:8; Pestilence

Revelation 6:8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth. 

Goodwin observed well in human history, “The gospel is always followed by terrible judgments upon the world for the contempt of it. You know Peter says, “The time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God; but it will not rest there, as he says. The time of the gospel’s preaching was a time of judgment, which began with the church, but after that fell most heavy upon the empire, and upon the heathens in it. So that as you look for storms in autumn and frost in winter, so expect judgments where the gospel has been preached; for the quarrel of the covenant must be avenged and vindicated. If men despise it, God cannot hold his hands.”

Pestilence has been another identification of the rider. This is reasonable because his name Thanatos (“Death”) is the same word translated “pestilence” (thanatos) later in the verse, and pestilence quite often follows famine. [Johnson]

Jeremiah 14:12 When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and an oblation, I will not accept them: but I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence. 

Ezekiel 5:17 So will I send upon you famine and evil beasts, and they shall bereave thee; and pestilence and blood shall pass through thee; and I will bring the sword upon thee. I the LORD have spoken it. 

Ezekiel 14:21 For thus saith the Lord GOD; How much more when I send my four sore judgments upon Jerusalem, the sword, and the famine, and the noisome beast, and the pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast?