Daniel’s Vision of Four Beasts

7 Earlier, during the first year of King Belshazzar’s reign in Babylon,^[a] Daniel had a dream and saw visions as he lay in his bed. He wrote down the dream, and this is what he saw.

² In my vision that night, I, Daniel, saw a great storm churning the surface of a great sea, with strong winds blowing from every direction. ³ Then four huge beasts came up out of the water, each different from the others.

The Vision Is Explained

¹⁵ I, Daniel, was troubled by all I had seen, and my visions terrified me. ¹⁶ So I approached one of those standing beside the throne and asked him what it all meant. He explained it to me like this: ¹⁷ “These four huge beasts represent four kingdoms that will arise from the earth. ¹⁸ But in the end, the holy people of the Most High will be given the kingdom, and they will rule forever and ever.”