Daniel's Vision of the Four Beasts

In the first year of Belshazzar's reign — before the feast, before the fall of Babylon — Daniel had a vision. He saw the great sea churned by four winds, and out of the sea four beasts arose, each different from the others.

The first was a lion with eagle's wings. As Daniel watched, its wings were plucked, it was lifted from the earth, stood on two feet like a man, and received a human heart. The second was a bear, raised up on one side, with three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. A voice told it to arise and devour much flesh. The third was a leopard with four wings of a bird on its back and four heads, and dominion was given to it. The fourth was unlike any natural animal — terrifying, powerful, with large iron teeth that devoured and broke in pieces and stamped what was left. It had ten horns.

As Daniel considered the horns, a small horn grew up among them, uprooting three of the first horns. This horn had human eyes and a mouth speaking arrogant things.

The vision then shifted entirely. Thrones were set up. The Ancient of Days took his seat — his garment white as snow, hair like pure wool, his throne like a fiery flame with wheels of burning fire. A river of fire flowed out before him. Ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. The court sat and the books were opened. The fourth beast was killed and its body destroyed and given to the burning fire. The other beasts had their dominion removed but were permitted to live for a season.

Then in the night visions, one like a Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven, approaching the Ancient of Days. To him was given dominion, glory, and a kingdom — one that all peoples, nations, and languages would serve, an everlasting dominion that would not pass away or be destroyed.

Daniel found this troubling and asked one of those standing in the vision to explain it. He was told that the four beasts are four kings who arise from the earth. But the saints of the Most High will receive and possess the kingdom forever. The fourth beast is a fourth kingdom, different from all others, which will devour the whole earth. The ten horns are ten kings, and after them another king will arise — different from the first, able to subdue three kings — who will speak words against the Most High, oppress his saints, and attempt to change the appointed times and law. The saints will be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time. Then the court will sit, his dominion will be removed, and the kingdom and dominion under the whole heaven will be given to the people of the saints of the Most High.

Daniel kept the vision to himself. He was pale and troubled by it.

This chapter is the hinge of the book — the last chapter written in Aramaic (the language that begins at 2:4) and the first of Daniel's personal visions. The shift from narrative (chapters 1-6) to vision (chapters 7-12) is structural and theological. The four beasts cover the same terrain as Nebuchadnezzar's four-metal statue, but what the statue presented as unified and impressive, the beasts present as predatory and distinct. The Son of Man phrase is the passage's most consequential contribution to the NT. Jesus uses it as his primary self-designation in all four Gospels — approximately 80 times — and at his trial before the high priest he cites Daniel 7:13 directly (Mark 14:62), accepting the charge of blasphemy because he identified himself with the figure who receives divine dominion at the heavenly court. The phrase also connects directly to Ezekiel's vision, where God addresses Ezekiel as 'son of man' throughout, and to Ezekiel 38-39 and the book of Revelation, which draws on Daniel 7's imagery extensively for its throne room scenes.