Daniel 7:3

And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another. BEASTS - not living animals, as the cherubic four in Revelation 4:7 (for the original [ zooa (G2226)] is a different word from beasts [ theeria (G2342)], and ought to be there translated 'living animals'). The cherubic living animals represent redeemed man, combining in himself the highest forms of animal life. But the "beasts" here represent the world-powers in their beastlike grovelling character. It is on the fundamental harmony between nature and spirit, between the three kingdoms of nature, history, and revelation, that Scripture symbolism rests. The selection of symbols is not arbitrary, but based on the essence of things....

After Daniel had beheld these great commotions which were shaking the earth in different parts, another vision was offered to him. What has already been said concerning the troubled sea and the conflict of the winds, is extended to the four monarchies, concerning which we shall now treat. A certain preparation is intended when God offers to the eyes of his Prophet a turbulent sea produced by the conflict of the winds. Just as if he should say — after these troubles others shall spring up; thus men will wait for peace and tranquillity in vain, for they must suffer under fresh agitation’s. Now, the kind of trouble is expressed, by the words_, four beasts proceed out of the sea_. Hence that concussion, those storms, and that confused disturbance of the whole world through one kingdom succeeding to another. It can scarcely happen that any kingdom can perish without involving others in its ru...

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....

Verse Daniel 7:3. _FOUR GREAT BEASTS CAME UP FROM THE SEA_] The term _sea_, in Hebrew ים _yam_, from המה _hamah, to be tumultuous, agitated_, c., seems to be used here to point out the then known _terraqueous_ _globe_, because of its generally agitated state and the _four winds_ _striving_, point out those predatory wars that prevailed almost universally among men, from the days of Nimrod, the founder of the Assyrian or Babylonish monarchy, down to that time, and in the end gave birth to the _four great monarchies_ which are the subject of this vision. _DIVERSE ONE FROM ANOTHER._] The _people_ were _different_; the _laws_ and _customs_ different; and the _administration_ of each differently executed....

AND FOUR GREAT BEASTS CAME UP FROM THE SEA - Not at once, but in succession. See the following verses. Their particular form is described in the subsequent verses. The design of mentioning them here, as coming up from, the sea, seems to have been to show that this succession of kingdoms sprang from the agitations and commotions among the nations represented by the heaving ocean. It is not uncommon for the prophets to make use of animals to represent or symbolize kingdoms and nations - usually by some animal which was in a manner peculiar to the land that was symbolized, or which abounded there. Thus in Isaiah 27:1, leviathan, or the dragon, or crocodile, is used to represent Babylon. See the note at that passage. In Ezekiel 29:3, the dragon or the crocodile of the Nile is put for

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....

AND FOUR GREAT BEASTS CAME UP FROM THE SEA,.... Which are afterwards interpreted of four kings or kingdoms, Daniel 7:17, which rose up in the world, not at once, but successively, and out of the sea or world, through the commotions and agitations of it; and these are the four monarchies, Babylonian, Persian, Grecian, and Roman; compared to "beasts", because of the rapine and violence, cruelty, oppression, and tyranny, by which they were obtained, set up, supported, and maintained; and to "great ones", being not like single separate kingdoms, as the kingdom of Israel, and the like, but consisting of many kingdoms and nations, and so like beasts of an enormous size: DIVERSE ONE FROM ANOTHER; in their situation, language, manner, strength, and power; hence expressed by divers sorts of beasts, as the lion, bear, leopard, c. as in Nebuchadnezzar's dream by different metals, gold,

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

FOUR GREAT BEASTS. These are not the four dominions of Daniel 2. They stand up one after the other, and each stands, successively, in the place of the other. These are to arise in "the days of" those last "ten kings" of Daniel 2:44. These continue the last of Nebuchadnezzar's last dominion, and do exist together. See note on Daniel 7:12 below....