Daniel 7:1-8
Daniel has a Vision of Four Animals Coming up from the Sea
1 In the first ▼▼sn The first year of Belshazzar’s reign would have been ca. 553 b.c. Daniel would have been approximately 67 years old at the time of this vision.
year of King Belshazzar of Babylon, Daniel had ▼▼tn Aram “saw.”
a dream filled with visions ▼▼tn Aram “and visions of his head.” The Aramaic is difficult here. Some scholars add a verb thought to be missing (e.g., “the visions of his head [were alarming him]”), but there is no external evidence to support such a decision, and the awkwardness of the text at this point may be original.
while he was lying on his bed. Then he wrote down the dream in summary fashion. ▼▼tn Aram “head of words.” The phrase is absent in Theodotion. Cf. NIV’s “the substance of his dream.”
2Daniel explained: ▼▼tn Aram “answered and said.”
“I was watching in my vision during the night as ▼▼tn Aram “and behold.”
the four winds of the sky ▼▼tn Or “the heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heavens” or “sky” depending on the context.
were stirring up the great sea. ▼▼sn The referent of the great sea is unclear. The common view that the expression refers to the Mediterranean Sea is conjectural.
3Then four large beasts came up from the sea; they were different from one another. 4 “The first one was like a lion with eagles’ wings. As I watched, its wings were pulled off, and it was lifted up from the ground. It was made to stand on two feet like a human being, and a human mind ▼▼tn Aram “heart of a man.”
was given to it. ▼▼sn The identity of the first animal, derived from v. 17 and the parallels in chap. 2, is Babylon. The reference to the plucking of its wings is probably a reference to the time of Nebuchadnezzar’s insanity (cf. chap. 4). The latter part of v. 4 then describes the restoration of Nebuchadnezzar. The other animals have traditionally been understood to represent respectively Media-Persia, Greece, and Rome, although most of modern scholarship identifies them as Media, Persia, and Greece. For a biblical parallel to the mention of lion, bear, and leopard together, see Hos 13:7-8.
5 “Then ▼▼tn Aram “and behold.”
a second beast appeared, like a bear. It was raised up on one side, and there were three ribs ▼▼sn The three ribs held securely in the mouth of the bear, perhaps representing Media-Persia, apparently symbolize military conquest, but the exact identity of the “ribs” is not clear. Possibly it is a reference to the Persian conquest of Lydia, Egypt, and Babylonia.
in its mouth between its teeth. ▼▼tc The LXX lacks the phrase “between its teeth.”
It was told, ▼▼tn Aram “and thus they were saying to it.”
‘Get up and devour much flesh!’ 6 “After these things, ▼ as I was watching, another beast ▼▼tn Aram “and behold, another one.”
like a leopard appeared, with four bird-like wings on its back. ▼▼tn Or “sides.”
This beast had four heads, ▼ and ruling authority was given to it. 7 “After these things, as I was watching in the night visions ▼ a fourth beast appeared—one dreadful, terrible, and very strong. ▼▼sn The fourth animal differs from the others in that it is nondescript. Apparently it was so fearsome that Daniel could find nothing with which to compare it. Attempts to identify this animal as an elephant or other known creature are conjectural.
It had two large rows ▼▼tn The Aramaic word for “teeth” is dual rather than plural, suggesting two rows of teeth.
of iron teeth. It devoured and crushed, and anything that was left it trampled with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that came before it, and it had 10 horns. 8 “As I was contemplating the horns, another horn—a small one—came up between them, and three of the former horns were torn out by the roots to make room for it. ▼▼tn Aram “were uprooted from before it.”
This horn had eyes resembling human eyes and a mouth speaking arrogant ▼ things.
Copyright information for
NET2full