Daniel 7:19

7:19 “Then I wanted to know the meaning ¹  of the fourth beast, which was different from all the others. It was very dreadful, with two rows of iron teeth and bronze claws, and it devoured, crushed, and trampled anything that was left with its feet.

Daniel 7:23

7:23 “This is what he told me: ² 

‘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.

Daniel 2:40

2:40 Then there will be a fourth kingdom, one strong like iron. Just like iron breaks in pieces and shatters everything, and as iron breaks in pieces ³  all of these metals, ⁴  so it will break in pieces and crush the others. ⁵ 

Daniel 8:10

8:10 It grew so big it reached the army ⁶  of heaven, and it brought about the fall of some of the army and some of the stars ⁷  to the ground, where it trampled them.

Daniel 8:2

8:2 In this ⁸  vision I saw myself in Susa ⁹  the citadel, ¹⁰  which is located in the province of Elam. In the vision I saw myself at the Ulai Canal. ¹¹ 

Daniel 1:1

Daniel Finds Favor in Babylon

1:1 In the third ¹²  year of the reign of King Jehoiakim of Judah, King Nebuchadnezzar ¹³  of Babylon advanced against Jerusalem ¹⁴  and laid it under siege. ¹⁵ 

¹ tn Aram “to make certain.”

² tn Aram “thus he said.”

³ tc Theodotion and the Vulgate lack the phrase “and as iron breaks in pieces.”

⁴ tn The Aramaic text does not have this word, but it has been added in the translation for clarity.

⁵ tn The words “the others” are supplied from the context.

⁶ tn Traditionally, “host.” The term refers to God’s heavenly angelic assembly, which he sometimes leads into battle as an army.

⁷ sn In prescientific Israelite thinking the stars were associated with the angelic members of God’s heavenly assembly. See Judg 5:20; Job 38:7; Isa 40:26. In west Semitic mythology the stars were members of the high god’s divine assembly (see Isa 14:13).

⁸ tn Heb “the.”

⁹ sn Susa (Heb. שׁוּשַׁן, shushan), located some 230 miles (380 km) east of Babylon, was a winter residence for Persian kings during the Achaemenid period. The language of v. 2 seems to suggest that Daniel may not have been physically present at Susa, but only saw himself there in the vision. However, the Hebrew is difficult, and some have concluded that the first four words of v. 2 in the MT are a later addition (cf. Theodotion).

¹⁰ tn The Hebrew word בִּירָה (birah, “castle, palace”) usually refers to a fortified structure within a city, but here it is in apposition to the city name Susa and therefore has a broader reference to the entire city (against this view, however, see BDB 108 s.v. 2). Cf. NAB “the fortress of Susa”; TEV “the walled city of Susa.”

¹¹ tn The term אוּבַל (’uval = “stream, river”) is a relatively rare word in biblical Hebrew, found only here and in vv. 3 and 6. The Ulai was apparently a sizable artificial canal in Susa (cf. NASB, NIV, NCV), and not a river in the ordinary sense of that word.

¹² sn The third year of the reign of Jehoiakim would be ca. 605 B.C. At this time Daniel would have been a teenager. The reference to Jehoiakim’s third year poses a serious crux interpretum, since elsewhere these events are linked to his fourth year (Jer 25:1; cf. 2 Kgs 24:1; 2 Chr 36:5-8). Apparently Daniel is following an accession year chronology, whereby the first partial year of a king’s reign was reckoned as the accession year rather than as the first year of his reign. Jeremiah, on the other hand, is following a nonaccession year chronology, whereby the accession year is reckoned as the first year of the king’s reign. In that case, the conflict is only superficial. Most modern scholars, however, have concluded that Daniel is historically inaccurate here.

¹³ sn King Nebuchadnezzar ruled Babylon from ca. 605-562 B.C.

¹⁴ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

¹⁵ sn This attack culminated in the first of three major deportations of Jews to Babylon. The second one occurred in 597 B.C. and included among many other Jewish captives the prophet Ezekiel. The third deportation occurred in 586 B.C., at which time the temple and the city of Jerusalem were thoroughly destroyed.