Daniel’s Dream About Four Animals

7 In Belshazzar’s first year as king of Babylon [^Cperhaps 550 bc], Daniel had a dream. He saw visions [^Lin his head] as he was lying on his bed, and he wrote ·down what he had dreamed [^Lthe beginning of the words/matter].

² Daniel said: “I saw my vision at night. In the vision the ·wind was blowing from all four directions, which made the sea very rough [^Lfour winds of heaven stirred up the great sea; ^Ca picture of chaos]. ³ I saw four huge ·animals [beasts] come up from the sea, and each ·animal [beast] was different from the others.

⁴ “The first ·animal [beast] looked like a lion, but had wings like an eagle. I watched this ·animal [beast] until its wings were torn off. It was lifted from the ground so that it stood up on two feet like a human, and it was given the ·mind [heart] of a human [^Cperhaps representing Babylon].

⁵ “Then I saw a ·second [^Lanother] ·animal [beast] before me that looked like a bear. It was raised up on one of its sides and had three ·ribs [or tusks] in its mouth between its teeth. It was told, ‘Get up and eat ·all the meat you want [much flesh; many bodies; ^Cperhaps representing the Medes or the Medes and Persians]!’

⁶ “After that, I looked, and there before me was another ·animal [beast]. This ·animal [beast] looked like a leopard with four wings on its back that looked like a bird’s wings. This ·animal [beast] had four heads and was given ·power to rule [authority; ^Cperhaps representing the Persians or the Greeks].

⁷ “After that, in my vision at night I saw in front of me a fourth ·animal [beast] that was ·cruel [fearsome], ·terrible [terrifying], and very strong [^Cperhaps the Greeks or Romans]. It had large iron teeth. It crushed and ate what it killed, and then it ·walked on [^Lstamped with its feet] whatever was left. This fourth ·animal [beast] was different from any ·animal [beast] I had seen before, and it had ten horns [^Crepresenting strength and power].

⁸ “While I was ·thinking about [reflecting on] the horns, another horn grew up among them. It was a little horn with eyes like a human’s eyes. It also had a mouth, and the mouth was bragging. The little horn ·pulled out [uprooted] three of the other horns.