Daniel 7:1

In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon Daniel had a dream and visions of his head upon his bed: then he wrote the dream, and told the sum of the matters. This chapter treats of the same subject as the second chapter. But there the four kingdoms, and Messiah's final kingdom, were regarded according to their external political aspect; but here, according to the mind of God concerning them, and their moral features. The outward political history had been shown in its general features to the world-ruler, whose position fitted him for receiving such a revelation. But God's prophet here receives disclosures as to the character of the powers of the world, in a religious point of view, suited to his position and receptivity. Hence, in the second chapter, the images are taken from the inanimate sphere; in the seventh chapter they are taken from the animate. Nebuchadnezzar saw superfic...

Hear. Daniel begins to offer instruction peculiar to the Church. For God had formerly appointed him an interpreter and instructor to, profane kings. But he now appoints him a teacher to the Church, that he may exercise his office within it, and instruct the sons of God in the bosom of the Church. We must notice this first of all, because thus far his predictions extended beyond the limits of the household of faith, but here Daniel’s duty is restricted to the Church. He says: This vision _was bestowed upon him in the first year of King Belshazzar, _before that change happened, which we have previously seen. First of all, we must try to understand the design of the Holy Spirit; that is, the end and use for which he opened up to Daniel the material of this chapter. All the prophets had held out to the elect people the hope of deliverance, after God had punished them for their ingratitude an...

1-8 This vision contains the same prophetic representations with Nebuchadnezzar's dream. The great sea agitated by the winds, represented the earth and the dwellers on it troubled by ambitious princes and conquerors. The four beasts signified the same four empires, as the four parts of Nebuchadnezzar's image. Mighty conquerors are but instruments of God's vengeance on a guilty world. The savage beast represents the hateful features of their characters. But the dominion given to each has a limit; their wrath shall be made to praise the Lord, and the remainder of it he will restrain....

CHAPTER VII _The prophet having, in the preceding chapters of this book,_ _related some remarkable events concerning himself and his_ _brethren in the captivity, and given proof of his being_ _enabled, by Divine assistance, to interpret the dreams of_ _others, enters now into a detail of his own visions, returning_ _to a period prior to the transactions recorded in the last_ _chapter. The first in order of the prophet's visions is that_ _of the four beasts, which arose out of a very tempestuous_ _ocean_, 1-9; and of one like

IN THE FIRST YEAR OF BELSHAZZAR KING OF BABYLON - On the character and reign of Belshazzar, see Introduction to Daniel 5 Section II. He was the last of the kings of Babylon, and this fact may cast some light on the disclosures made in the dream. DANIEL HAD A DREAM - Margin, as in Hebrew, saw. He saw a series of events in vision when he was asleep. The dream refers to that representation, and was of such a nature that it was proper to speak of it as if he saw it. Compare the notes at Daniel 2:1. AND VISIONS OF HIS HEAD UPON HIS BED - See the notes at Daniel 4:5. THEN HE WROTE THE DREAM -...

EXPOSITION DANIEL 7:1 THE VISION OF THE FOUR BEASTS. This chapter begins the second section of the book. All before this has been narrative; visions are introduced into the narrative, but they were not given to Daniel himself, but to others; his _role_ was the secondary one of interpreter. These visions and the events connected with them are related more as incidents in the biography of Daniel, than as revelations of the future. With this chapter begins a series of revelations to Daniel personally. This chapter is the last chapter of the Aramaic portion of Daniel. Though thus linguistically joined to what has preceded, logically it is related to what follows....

IN THE FIRST YEAR OF BELSHAZZAR KING OF BABYLON,.... Daniel having finished the historical part of his book, and committed to writing what was necessary concerning himself and his three companions, and concerning Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, and Darius the Mede, proceeds to the prophetic part, and goes back to the first year of Belshazzar's reign, seventeen years before his death, and the fall of the Babylonish monarchy last mentioned; for so long Belshazzar reigned, according to Josephus u; and with which agrees the canon of Ptolemy, who ascribes so many years to the reign of Nabonadius, the same, with Belshazzar: he began to reign, according to Bishop Usher w, Dean Prideaux x, and Mr, Whiston y, in the year of the world 3449 A.M., and 555 B.C.; and in the first year of his reign Daniel had the dream of the four monarchies, as follows: DANIEL HAD A DREAM: as Nebuchadnezzar before had, c...

II. THE GREAT PROPHECIES OF DANIEL CHAPTER 7 The night visions of Daniel _ 1. The night vision of the three beasts (Daniel 7:1)_ 2. The night vision of the fourth beast (Daniel 7:7) 3. The judgment vision (Daniel 7:9) 4. The son of man and His kingdom (Daniel 7:13) 5. The interpretation of the visions given (Daniel 7:15) Daniel 7:1. The sea in the vision is the type of nations...

DANIEL 7. THE VISION OF THE FOUR BEASTS. From this point onwards the Book becomes purely apocalyptic. The vision of the four beasts is parallel to the vision of the image in Daniel 2. The beasts rise out of the sea. The first is a lion with eagle's wings, the second a bear, the third a leopard, the fourth a nameless and terrible creature with ten horns. Among the ten horns of the fourth beast there arises another little horn with the eyes of a man, which destroys three of the other horns. At this point the scene changes. A great assize is being held by the ancient of days. The fourth beast is slain. The other three are dispossessed. _A_ human figure appears and receives an everlasting kingdom. The rest of the chapter (Daniel 7:17) gives a partial interpretation of the vision. The four beasts are four kings (or kingdoms) which succeed one another and are followed by the kingdom of the sa

IN THE FIRST YEAR OF BELSHAZZAR. This was 429 B.C. See App-50. Daniel being eighty-four years old. Three years before the events of Daniel 6. Compare Daniel 5:30; Daniel 5:31, and the notes on the other dates (Daniel 8:1; Daniel 9:1; Daniel 10:1; Daniel 11:1, &c). This vision (Daniel 7) is still in Chaldee (the Gentile language), because