Daniel 7:1-6
Konteks7:1 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.
[7:1] 1 sn The first year of Belshazzar’s reign would have been ca. 553
[7:1] 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.
[7:1] 4 tn Aram “head of words.” The phrase is absent in Theodotion. Cf. NIV “the substance of his dream.”
[7:2] 5 tn Aram “answered and said.”
[7:2] 7 tn Or “the heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heavens” or “sky” depending on the context.
[7:2] 8 sn The referent of the great sea is unclear. The common view that the expression refers to the Mediterranean Sea is conjectural.
[7:4] 9 tn Aram “heart of a man.”
[7:4] 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.
[7:5] 11 tn Aram “and behold.”
[7:5] 12 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.
[7:5] 13 tc The LXX lacks the phrase “between its teeth.”
[7:5] 14 tn Aram “and thus they were saying to it.”
[7:6] 15 tn Aram “this.” So also in v. 7.
[7:6] 16 tn Aram “and behold, another one.”
[7:6] 18 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.