Daniel 7:2-4
New English Translation
2 Daniel explained:[a] “I was watching in my vision during the night as[b] the four winds of the sky[c] were stirring up the great sea.[d] 3 Then 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[e] was given to it.[f]
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Daniel 7:2 tn Aram “answered and said.”
- Daniel 7:2 tn Aram “and behold.”
- Daniel 7:2 tn Or “the heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heavens” or “sky” depending on the context.
- Daniel 7:2 sn The referent of the great sea is unclear. The common view that the expression refers to the Mediterranean Sea is conjectural.
- Daniel 7:4 tn Aram “heart of a man.”
- Daniel 7:4 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.
Daniel 7:2-4
New International Version
2 Daniel said: “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me were the four winds of heaven(A) churning up the great sea. 3 Four great beasts,(B) each different from the others, came up out of the sea.
4 “The first was like a lion,(C) and it had the wings of an eagle.(D) 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.
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