Visions of the Four Beasts

7 In the first year of King Belshazzar of Babylon, Daniel had a dream and visions of his head as he lay in bed. Then he wrote down the dream:^{[a](A) 2} I,^[b] Daniel, saw in my vision by night the four winds of heaven stirring up the great sea, ³ and four great beasts came up out of the sea, different from one another.^{(B) 4} The first was like a lion and had eagles’ wings. Then, as I watched, its wings were plucked off, and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a human being, and a human mind was given to it.^{(C) 5} Another beast appeared, a second one, that looked like a bear. It was raised up on one side, had three tusks^[c] in its mouth among its teeth, and was told, “Arise, devour many bodies!” ⁶ After this, as I watched, another appeared, like a leopard. The beast had four wings of a bird on its back and four heads, and dominion was given to it.^{(D) 7} After this I saw in the visions by night a fourth beast, terrifying and dreadful and exceedingly strong. It had great iron teeth and was devouring, breaking in pieces, and stamping what was left with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that preceded it, and it had ten horns.^{(E) 8} I was considering the horns when another horn appeared, a little one that came up among them. Three of the original horns were plucked up from before it. There were eyes like human eyes in this horn and a mouth speaking arrogantly.^(F)

Judgment before the Ancient One

¹¹ I watched then because of the noise of the arrogant words that the horn was speaking. And as I watched, the beast was put to death and its body destroyed and given over to be burned with fire.^{(I) 12} As for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away, but their lives were prolonged for a season and a time. ¹³ As I watched in the night visions,

The Supremacy of Christ

¹⁵ He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation,^{(A) 16} for in^[a] him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him. ¹⁷ He himself is before all things, and in^[b] him all things hold together. ¹⁸ He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything.^{(B) 19} For in him all the fullness of God^[c] was pleased to dwell, ²⁰ and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.^(C)

²¹ And you who were once estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, ²² he has now reconciled^[d] in his fleshly body^[e] through death, so as to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him,^{(D) 23} provided that you continue securely established and steadfast in the faith, without shifting from the hope promised by the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed to every creature^[f] under heaven. I, Paul, became a minister of this gospel.^(E)

Jesus Chooses the Twelve Apostles

¹² Now during those days he went out to the mountain to pray, and he spent the night in prayer to God.^{(A) 13} And when day came, he called his disciples and chose twelve of them, whom he also named apostles:^{(B) 14} Simon, whom he named Peter, and his brother Andrew, and James, and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew, ¹⁵ and Matthew, and Thomas, and James son of Alphaeus, and Simon, who was called the Zealot, ¹⁶ and Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.^(C)

Jesus Teaches and Heals

¹⁷ He came down with them and stood on a level place with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon.^{(D) 18} They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases, and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. ¹⁹ And everyone in the crowd was trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.^(E)

Blessings and Woes

²⁰ Then he looked up at his disciples and said:

²² “Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you^[a] on account of the Son of Man.^{(G) 23} Rejoice on that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven, for that is how their ancestors treated the prophets.^(H)

²⁶ “Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets.^(K)