Daniel 7: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

In Belshazzar's first year, Daniel dreams of four great beasts rising out of the sea, the last with ten horns and a boastful little horn among them. The scene shifts to a courtroom where the Ancient of Days takes his seat, the beast is destroyed, and one like a son of man is given everlasting rule over all peoples. An interpreter tells Daniel the beasts are four kings, and that a later king from the fourth kingdom will oppress the holy people of the Most High for a time, times, and half a time, until the court takes away his rule and the kingdom is given to the holy people. Daniel writes the dream down, is deeply troubled by it, and keeps it to himself.

Claim by Claim

1. 7:1
   • In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream.
   • Daniel had visions in his head while on his bed.
   • Daniel then wrote the dream down.
   • Daniel told the sum of the matters.
2. 7:2
   • Daniel spoke and said this.
   • Daniel said he was looking in his vision by night.
   • Daniel said the four winds of heaven stirred up the great sea.
3. 7:3
   • Four great beasts came up out of the sea.
   • The four beasts were different from one another.
4. 7:4
   • The first beast was like a lion.
   • The first beast had eagle's wings.
   • Daniel watched until the beast's wings were plucked off.
   • The beast was lifted up from the ground.
   • The beast was made to stand on two feet like a man.
   • A man's mind was given to the beast.
5. 7:5
   • A second beast appeared, like a bear.
   • The second beast was raised up on one side.
   • The second beast had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth.
   • Unnamed speakers said to it, Arise, devour much flesh.
6. 7:6
   • After this Daniel kept looking.
   • Another beast appeared, like a leopard.
   • That beast had four wings of a bird on its back.
   • That beast had four heads.
   • Dominion was given to that beast.
7. 7:7
   • After this Daniel saw in the night visions.
   • A fourth beast appeared, dreadful and terrifying.
   • The fourth beast was exceedingly strong.
   • The fourth beast had great iron teeth.
   • The fourth beast devoured and broke in pieces.
   • The fourth beast trampled what was left with its feet.
   • The fourth beast was different from all the beasts before it.
   • The fourth beast had ten horns.
8. 7:8
   • Daniel considered the horns.
   • Another horn, a little one, came up among them.
   • Three of the first horns were uprooted before the little horn.
   • The little horn had eyes like the eyes of a man.
   • The little horn had a mouth speaking great things.
9. 7:9
   • Daniel watched until thrones were set in place; the verb can mean either that the thrones were set down or that they were thrown down.
   • The Ancient of Days took his seat.
   • His garment was white as snow.
   • The hair of his head was like pure wool.
   • His throne was flames of fire.
   • The wheels of his throne were burning fire.
10. 7:10
    • A stream of fire flowed out from before him.
    • A thousand thousands ministered to him.
    • Ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him.
    • The court sat in judgment.
    • The books were opened.
11. 7:11
    • Daniel kept watching because of the sound of the great words the horn was speaking.
    • Daniel watched until the beast was killed.
    • The beast's body was destroyed.
    • The beast's body was given over to the burning fire.
12. 7:12
    • The dominion of the rest of the beasts was taken away.
    • The lives of the rest of the beasts were prolonged for a season and a time.
13. 7:13
    • Daniel was watching in the night visions.
    • One like a son of man was coming with the clouds of heaven.
    • He came to the Ancient of Days.
    • They brought him near before the Ancient of Days.
14. 7:14
    • Dominion was given to him.
    • Glory was given to him.
    • A kingdom was given to him.
    • All peoples, nations, and languages should serve him.
    • His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away.
    • His kingdom will not be destroyed.
15. 7:15
    • Daniel's spirit was distressed within his body.
    • The visions of his head alarmed him.
16. 7:16
    • Daniel approached one of those standing there.
    • Daniel asked him the truth about all this.
    • The one standing there spoke to Daniel.
    • He made Daniel know the interpretation of the things.
17. 7:17
    • These four great beasts are four kings.
    • These four kings will arise out of the earth.
18. 7:18
    • The saints of the Most High will receive the kingdom.
    • They will possess the kingdom forever, forever and ever.
19. 7:19
    • Daniel then wanted to know the truth about the fourth beast.
    • The fourth beast was different from all the others.
    • The fourth beast was exceedingly dreadful.
    • The fourth beast's teeth were of iron.
    • The fourth beast's claws were of bronze.
    • The fourth beast devoured and broke in pieces.
    • The fourth beast trampled what was left with its feet.
20. 7:20
    • Daniel wanted to know about the ten horns on the beast's head.
    • Daniel wanted to know about the other horn that came up.
    • Three horns fell before that other horn.
    • That horn had eyes.
    • That horn had a mouth speaking very great things.
    • That horn's appearance was greater than its companions.
21. 7:21
    • Daniel watched.
    • That same horn made war with the saints.
    • That horn prevailed against the saints.
22. 7:22
    • This continued until the Ancient of Days came.
    • Judgment was given to the saints of the Most High.
    • The time came.
    • The saints took possession of the kingdom.
23. 7:23
    • He said this.
    • The fourth beast will be a fourth kingdom on the earth.
    • That kingdom will be different from all the kingdoms.
    • That kingdom will devour the whole earth.
    • That kingdom will trample the earth down.
    • That kingdom will break the earth in pieces.
24. 7:24
    • The ten horns out of that kingdom are ten kings who will arise.
    • Another will arise after them.
    • He will be different from the earlier ones.
    • He will bring down three kings.
25. 7:25
    • He will speak words against the Most High.
    • He will wear out the saints of the Most High.
    • He will intend to change appointed times and law.
    • They will be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time.
26. 7:26
    • The court will sit in judgment.
    • They will take away his dominion.
    • His dominion will be consumed and destroyed to the end.
27. 7:27
    • The kingdom, the dominion, and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be given to the people of the saints of the Most High.
    • His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom.
    • All dominions will serve and obey him.
28. 7:28
    • Here is the end of the matter.
    • Daniel's thoughts greatly alarmed him.
    • Daniel's countenance changed on him.
    • Daniel kept the matter in his heart.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

7:1

Belshazzar ruled in Babylon as the last of its kings; he appears again in chapter 5, at the fall of the city. Dating this vision to his first year places it earlier than the events of chapters 5 and 6, so the book's visions are not in the same order as its stories. From here to the end of chapter 7 the book is written in Aramaic, the common international language of the Babylonian and Persian empires; the surrounding chapters at either end are in Hebrew.

7:2

"The four winds of heaven" is a standard phrase for the four directions, winds blowing in from every quarter at once. "The great sea" in ordinary usage means the Mediterranean, but in visions like this one the sea also carries its older sense as the wild, unruly water out of which monsters come; the text leaves both senses open.

7:3

The chapter never names the four kingdoms the beasts stand for, and readers have matched them to different empires, most commonly Babylon, Media, Persia and Greece, or Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome. The vision itself gives only the sequence, not the names.

7:4

A lion with eagle's wings was familiar imagery in Babylon, where winged lions were carved beside palace and city gates. Being made to stand upright and given a human mind reverses the beast's nature rather than adding to it.

7:5

Both details here are obscure in the Aramaic. "Raised up on one side" may mean the bear was rearing, lopsided, or crouched ready to spring, and the word for "ribs" can also mean tusks. Translators have to choose; the original does not settle it.

7:6

A leopard is the standard image for speed, and four wings on top of that make it faster still. Notice the wording "dominion was given to it": all through this chapter the beasts do not seize their power, they are handed it, which also means it can be taken back.

7:7

A horn is the standard image in this literature for a ruler or a concentration of power, the strength an animal fights with. Ten horns means ten rulers arising from that kingdom, as verse 24 makes explicit.

7:8

"Great things" (here "boastful words") is the idiom for arrogant speech that oversteps human limits; verse 25 sharpens it into words spoken against God himself. Eyes on the horn mark it as a watching, calculating thing rather than a blind force.

7:9

"Ancient of Days" translates an Aramaic phrase meaning "one advanced in days", aged, and so venerable. It appears nowhere else in the Bible outside this chapter. White clothing and white hair signal purity and age; a throne on wheels pictures the seat of a ruler as a chariot that can move, the same image used of God's throne in Ezekiel. Thrones in the plural are set out for a court, not for one judge alone.

7:10

"Thousands upon thousands" and "ten thousand times ten thousand" are idioms for a number past counting, not arithmetic. A court that "sat down" is a court formally convened and in session. Ancient courts kept written records of charges and verdicts, so opening the books means the evidence is produced and the case begins.

7:12

"A season and a time" is an idiom for a fixed, limited stretch, they keep their existence, but on borrowed time and without power.

7:13

"Son of man" is ordinary Aramaic for "a human being"; "one like a son of man" means a figure with human appearance. The contrast is the point: the earlier powers rose out of the sea looking like animals, this one comes from heaven looking like a person. Coming with the clouds is language used elsewhere of God appearing. The Aramaic does not say who "they" are who lead him in.

7:14

"All people, nations, and languages" was the set formula used in imperial decrees for the many subject peoples of an empire; it appears repeatedly elsewhere in Daniel in exactly that official sense.

7:15

The King James "in the midst of my body" follows the Aramaic literally: the body is called a sheath, the spirit a blade inside it. The image is of distress reaching all the way in.

7:16

"Those standing there" are attendants of the heavenly court described in verses 9 and 10. In visions of this kind such a figure regularly acts as the guide who explains what the seer has just watched.

7:17

"Kings" and "kingdoms" are used interchangeably here: verse 17 says four kings, verse 23 explains the fourth beast as a kingdom. A king stands for the realm he rules.

7:18

"Saints" in the King James does not mean unusually holy individuals. The word means "holy ones", those set apart, and here translates an Aramaic term that may refer to the people of Israel, to heavenly beings, or to both together; scholars disagree, and the chapter does not settle it.

7:19

"Nails of brass" means bronze claws. KJV "brass" almost always means bronze, the copper and tin alloy of the ancient world, since brass as we use the word was not in common use then. This detail is new: the claws were not mentioned when the beast was first described in verse 7.

7:20

"More stout than his fellows" means more imposing in appearance, bigger and more formidable looking than the other horns. Stout in 1611 carried that sense of size and bearing, not fatness and not courage.

7:21

"Prevailed against them" means it was winning the fight, at least for a while.

7:22

"Judgment was given to the saints" is courtroom language and can mean either that the verdict was handed down in their favor or that the right to judge was handed over to them. The Aramaic allows both.

7:24

"He shall subdue three kings" points back to verse 8, where three of the first horns were pulled out by the roots to make room for the small one. Horn and king are the same thing described two ways, once in the vision and once in the explanation.

7:25

"Times and laws" are the fixed religious calendar, the appointed festivals and their dates, together with the legal code that governs daily practice; changing them would mean overturning a people's whole ordered way of life. "A time, times, and half a time" is deliberately vague counting, usually taken as one plus two plus a half, giving three and a half units, most often read as years. The word for "times" could be dual (two) or simply plural (several), so the total is not certain.

7:26

"The judgment shall sit" means the court will meet and get to work. In the ancient world a judge sat down to hear a case, so sitting meant the trial had begun.

7:27

The Aramaic slides between singular and plural here, and "him" at the end is ambiguous: the one served and obeyed may be the Most High, or the people who have been given the kingdom. Translators must pick one; the text does not.

7:28

Two old words close the chapter. "Hitherto" means up to this point, so the sentence means the account stops here. "Cogitations" means thoughts, and "my countenance changed" means the color drained from his face.