³ Four great beasts,^(A) each different from the others, came up out of the sea.

The Beast out of the Sea

13 The dragon^[a] stood on the shore of the sea. And I saw a beast coming out of the sea.^(A) It had ten horns and seven heads,^(B) with ten crowns on its horns, and on each head a blasphemous name.^(C)

¹⁷ ‘The four great beasts are four kings that will rise from the earth.

⁴ “The first was like a lion,^(A) and it had the wings of an eagle.^(B) I watched until its wings were torn off and it was lifted from the ground so that it stood on two feet like a human being, and the mind of a human was given to it.

⁵ “And there before me was a second beast, which looked like a bear. It was raised up on one of its sides, and it had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. It was told, ‘Get up and eat your fill of flesh!’^(C)

⁶ “After that, I looked, and there before me was another beast, one that looked like a leopard.^(D) And on its back it had four wings like those of a bird. This beast had four heads, and it was given authority to rule.

⁷ “After that, in my vision^(E) at night I looked, and there before me was a fourth beast—terrifying and frightening and very powerful. It had large iron^(F) teeth; it crushed and devoured its victims and trampled^(G) underfoot whatever was left.^(H) It was different from all the former beasts, and it had ten horns.^(I)

⁸ “While I was thinking about the horns, there before me was another horn, a little^(J) one, which came up among them; and three of the first horns were uprooted before it. This horn had eyes like the eyes of a human being^(K) and a mouth that spoke boastfully.^(L)

³² The head of the statue was made of pure gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, ³³ its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay.

Four Chariots

6 I looked up again, and there before me were four chariots^(A) coming out from between two mountains—mountains of bronze. ² The first chariot had red horses, the second black,^{(B) 3} the third white,^(C) and the fourth dappled—all of them powerful. ⁴ I asked the angel who was speaking to me, “What are these, my lord?”

⁵ The angel answered me, “These are the four spirits^[a](D) of heaven, going out from standing in the presence of the Lord of the whole world.^{(E) 6} The one with the black horses is going toward the north country, the one with the white horses toward the west,^[b] and the one with the dappled horses toward the south.”

⁷ When the powerful horses went out, they were straining to go throughout the earth.^(F) And he said, “Go throughout the earth!” So they went throughout the earth.

⁸ Then he called to me, “Look, those going toward the north country have given my Spirit^[c] rest^(G) in the land of the north.”^(H)

³⁷ Your Majesty, you are the king of kings.^(A) The God of heaven has given you dominion^(B) and power and might and glory; ³⁸ in your hands he has placed all mankind and the beasts of the field and the birds in the sky. Wherever they live, he has made you ruler over them all.^(C) You are that head of gold.

³⁹ “After you, another kingdom will arise, inferior to yours. Next, a third kingdom, one of bronze, will rule over the whole earth.^{(D) 40} Finally, there will be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron—for iron breaks and smashes everything—and as iron breaks things to pieces, so it will crush and break all the others.^(E)