7:1 In the first 1 year of King Belshazzar of Babylon, Daniel had 2 a dream filled with visions 3 while he was lying on his bed. Then he wrote down the dream in summary fashion. 4 7:2 Daniel explained: 5 “I was watching in my vision during the night as 6 the four winds of the sky 7 were stirring up the great sea. 8 7:3 Then four large beasts came up from the sea; they were different from one another.
7:4 “The first one was like a lion with eagles’ wings. As I watched, its wings were pulled off and it was lifted up from the ground. It was made to stand on two feet like a human being, and a human mind 9 was given to it. 10
7:5 “Then 11 a second beast appeared, like a bear. It was raised up on one side, and there were three ribs 12 in its mouth between its teeth. 13 It was told, 14 ‘Get up and devour much flesh!’
7:6 “After these things, 15 as I was watching, another beast 16 like a leopard appeared, with four bird-like wings on its back. 17 This beast had four heads, 18 and ruling authority was given to it.
7:7 “After these things, as I was watching in the night visions 19 a fourth beast appeared – one dreadful, terrible, and very strong. 20 It had two large rows 21 of iron teeth. It devoured and crushed, and anything that was left it trampled with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that came before it, and it had ten horns.
7:8 “As I was contemplating the horns, another horn – a small one – came up between them, and three of the former horns were torn out by the roots to make room for it. 22 This horn had eyes resembling human eyes and a mouth speaking arrogant 23 things.
7:23 “This is what he told me: 24
‘The fourth beast means that there will be a fourth kingdom on earth
that will differ from all the other kingdoms.
It will devour all the earth
and will trample and crush it.
7:24 The ten horns
mean that ten kings will arise from that kingdom.
Another king will arise after them,
but he will be different from the earlier ones.
He will humiliate 25 three kings.
7:25 He will speak words against the Most High.
He will harass 26 the holy ones of the Most High continually.
His intention 27 will be to change times established by law. 28
They will be delivered into his hand
For a time, times, 29 and half a time.
1 sn The first year of Belshazzar’s reign would have been ca. 553
2 tn Aram “saw.”
3 tn Aram “and visions of his head.” The Aramaic is difficult here. Some scholars add a verb thought to be missing (e.g., “the visions of his head [were alarming him]”), but there is no external evidence to support such a decision and the awkwardness of the text at this point may be original.
4 tn Aram “head of words.” The phrase is absent in Theodotion. Cf. NIV “the substance of his dream.”
5 tn Aram “answered and said.”
6 tn Aram “and behold.”
7 tn Or “the heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heavens” or “sky” depending on the context.
8 sn The referent of the great sea is unclear. The common view that the expression refers to the Mediterranean Sea is conjectural.
9 tn Aram “heart of a man.”
10 sn The identity of the first animal, derived from v. 17 and the parallels in chap. 2, is Babylon. The reference to the plucking of its wings is probably a reference to the time of Nebuchadnezzar’s insanity (cf. chap. 4). The latter part of v. 4 then describes the restoration of Nebuchadnezzar. The other animals have traditionally been understood to represent respectively Media-Persia, Greece, and Rome, although most of modern scholarship identifies them as Media, Persia, and Greece. For a biblical parallel to the mention of lion, bear, and leopard together, see Hos 13:7-8.
13 tn Aram “and behold.”
14 sn The three ribs held securely in the mouth of the bear, perhaps representing Media-Persia, apparently symbolize military conquest, but the exact identity of the “ribs” is not clear. Possibly it is a reference to the Persian conquest of Lydia, Egypt, and Babylonia.
15 tc The LXX lacks the phrase “between its teeth.”
16 tn Aram “and thus they were saying to it.”
17 tn Aram “this.” So also in v. 7.
18 tn Aram “and behold, another one.”
19 tn Or “sides.”
20 sn If the third animal is Greece, the most likely identification of these four heads is the four-fold division of the empire of Alexander the Great following his death. See note on Dan 8:8.
21 tn The Aramaic text has also “and behold.” So also in vv. 8, 13.
22 sn The fourth animal differs from the others in that it is nondescript. Apparently it was so fearsome that Daniel could find nothing with which to compare it. Attempts to identify this animal as an elephant or other known creature are conjectural.
23 tn The Aramaic word for “teeth” is dual rather than plural, suggesting two rows of teeth.
25 tn Aram “were uprooted from before it.”
26 tn Aram “great.” So also in vv. 11, 20.
29 tn Aram “thus he said.”
33 tn Or “subjugate”; KJV, NASB, NIV “subdue”; ASV, NRSV “put down.”
37 tn Aram “wear out” (so KJV, ASV, NRSV); NASB, NLT “wear down.” The word is a hapax legomenon in biblical Aramaic, but in biblical Hebrew it especially refers to wearing out such things as garments. Here it is translated “harass…continually.”
38 tn Aram “he will think.”
39 tn Aram “times and law.” The present translation is based on the understanding that the expression is a hendiadys.
40 sn Although the word times is vocalized in the MT as a plural, it probably should be regarded as a dual. The Masoretes may have been influenced here by the fact that in late Aramaic (and Syriac) the dual forms fall out of use. The meaning would thus be three and a half “times.”