Daniel 7

KJV · Chapter 7/12

¹In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon Daniel had a dream and visions of his head upon his bed: then he wrote the dream, and told the sum of the matters.

²Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea.

³And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another.

⁴The first was like a lion, and had eagle’s wings: I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man, and a man’s heart was given to it.

⁵And behold another beast, a second, like to a bear, and it raised up itself on one side, and it had three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of it: and they said thus unto it, Arise, devour much flesh.

⁶After this I beheld, and lo another, like a leopard, which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl; the beast had also four heads; and dominion was given to it.

⁷After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns.

⁸I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things.

⁹I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire.

¹⁰A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened.

¹¹I beheld then because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake: I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame.

¹²As concerning the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away: yet their lives were prolonged for a season and time.

¹³I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him.

¹⁴And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.

¹⁵I Daniel was grieved in my spirit in the midst of my body, and the visions of my head troubled me.

¹⁶I came near unto one of them that stood by, and asked him the truth of all this. So he told me, and made me know the interpretation of the things.

¹⁷These great beasts, which are four, are four kings, which shall arise out of the earth.

¹⁸But the saints of the most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever.

¹⁹Then I would know the truth of the fourth beast, which was diverse from all the others, exceeding dreadful, whose teeth were of iron, and his nails of brass; which devoured, brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with his feet;

²⁰And of the ten horns that were in his head, and of the other which came up, and before whom three fell; even of that horn that had eyes, and a mouth that spake very great things, whose look was more stout than his fellows.

²¹I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them;

²²Until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom.

²³Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.

²⁴And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.

²⁵And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.

²⁶But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end.

²⁷And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him.

²⁸Hitherto is the end of the matter. As for me Daniel, my cogitations much troubled me, and my countenance changed in me: but I kept the matter in my heart.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

Daniel has a vision of four great beasts rising from the sea, representing four successive empires, culminating in a small horn that blasphemes, until the 'Ancient of Days' judges and gives the eternal kingdom to 'one like a son of man.'

Explanation

This vision, which occurred decades before the events of chapter 5 in actual chronological order (though placed here in the book's structure), picks up and expands the sequence of empires already seen in the statue of chapter 2, but now with more dramatic and symbolic details using wild beasts. The 'Ancient of Days,' with garments white as snow, represents God on his throne of eternal judgment, while the figure of 'one like a son of man' coming with the clouds and receiving everlasting dominion is one of the most important messianic prophecies of the Old Testament, a title Jesus would repeatedly claim for himself in the Gospels. The fourth beast, more terrible than the others and with ten horns, is generally identified with the Roman Empire, showing the book's concern with the power and ultimate fall of all human empires before God's eternal kingdom.

Fun facts

The expression 'the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven' (v.13) is quoted directly by Jesus before the high priest at his trial (Matthew 26:64), applying this messianic prophecy explicitly to himself.
This is considered by many scholars the first clear appearance of the 'apocalyptic' literary genre in the Bible, characterized by complex symbolic visions about the end of the age, which would strongly influence later books such as Revelation.

Verse-by-verse explanation

Daniel 7:1This dream takes place chronologically before the events of chapter 5, in Belshazzar’s first year — the book of Daniel does not follow a strictly chronological order, alternating between court stories and prophetic visions.
Daniel 7:2The four winds stirring up ‘the great sea’ before the beasts emerge draws on an image common in the ancient Near East, where the sea represented chaos and foreign nations — the four beasts that come out of it are, by the end of the chapter, explained by the text itself as four kings or kingdoms.
Daniel 7:3The sea, in the imagination of the ancient Near East, was a common symbol of chaos and threat — beasts coming up out of it already suggests, before any further detail, that they represent hostile, unpredictable powers.
Daniel 7:4Lion, bear, and leopard, each with some exaggerated feature — wings, three ribs in its mouth, four heads — pick up the same idea of successive empires already seen in the statue of chapter 2, now in the language of beasts instead of metals.
Daniel 7:5Raising itself up ‘on one side’ may indicate an empire that is unbalanced or expansionist in a specific direction; the traditional identification links this bear to the Medo-Persian empire, Babylon’s successor.
Daniel 7:6Four heads and four wings suggest a swift power later split into parts — the traditional reading associates this leopard with Alexander’s Greek empire, fragmented among his generals after his death.
Daniel 7:7Unlike the first three beasts, which resemble known creatures, this fourth beast has no comparison to any real animal — a sign that it represents a power so brutal it escapes any natural category.
Daniel 7:8The exact identity of this ‘little horn’ is one of the biggest debates in the interpretation of Daniel — some historical readings link the figure to a ruler of the Greek period, while others read it as a symbol of a future oppressive power.
Daniel 7:9‘The Ancient of days’ sitting on a throne of fire, with books opened before him, is a scene of heavenly courtroom — a formal judgment, with written records, an image that appears in several Jewish apocalyptic texts to describe the nations’ final reckoning.
Daniel 7:10The scene resembles a heavenly court of justice, with an enormous number of servants and open books — the image of a formal, public judgment, not an arbitrary or secret punishment.
Daniel 7:11The beast’s destruction is triggered specifically by the arrogance of its words, a pattern already seen with Nebuchadnezzar: speaking with excessive pride precedes the fall in several parts of the book.
Daniel 7:12Saying that the earlier empires lost their dominion but went on existing for a while suggests a gradual transition of power, not the immediate disappearance of entire peoples and cultures.
Daniel 7:13‘One like the Son of man’ coming with the clouds of heaven is one of the most debated expressions in the whole Bible: the chapter itself explains later, in verses 18 and 27, that the kingdom is given ‘to the saints of the most High,’ that is, to the faithful people as a whole — but later traditions read this figure as one specific individual. Both readings coexist in the book’s history of interpretation.
Daniel 7:14This eternal kingdom given to the figure ‘like the Son of man’ contrasts directly with all the earlier empires in the vision, which, however powerful, all had an expiration date.
Daniel 7:15Daniel’s emotional reaction, physical distress at his own vision, shows that even as the prophet receiving the revelation, he does not experience it with cold detachment; the scene affects him as a person.
Daniel 7:16Unlike Nebuchadnezzar’s dreams, which needed Daniel to interpret them, here it is Daniel himself who receives the vision and has to ask a heavenly being what it means.
Daniel 7:17The interpreter explains directly that the beasts represent kings or kingdoms — most of Daniel’s apocalyptic visions use this same code, in which an animal stands for political power.
Daniel 7:18‘The saints of the most High’ here probably designates God’s faithful people as a whole, not some restricted category of extraordinary individuals — the promise is collective, not individual.
Daniel 7:19Daniel asks for specific details only about the fourth beast, a sign that it was the part of the vision that most intrigued and frightened him among everything he had seen.
Daniel 7:20Repeating the details of the little horn, already described in verse 8, shows that this specific figure is Daniel’s real focus of interest within the whole vision of the four beasts.
Daniel 7:21The little horn making war against the saints for ‘a time and times and the dividing of time’ is another symbolic and obscure time expression, much debated across the centuries with no consensus on the exact length it represents.
Daniel 7:22The story’s turning point depends on a direct intervention by ‘the Ancient of days’ — the little horn’s power is not defeated by a rival military force, but by a judgment coming from outside the human political system.
Daniel 7:23Saying that this kingdom will devour ‘the whole earth’ suggests a reach without precedent among the vision’s earlier empires, consistent with the traditional identification of this fourth kingdom as Rome.
Daniel 7:24The exact identity of these ten kings and the king who succeeds them is one of the most debated points among scholars of the book — the text names no nations or rulers, leaving room for different historical readings.
Daniel 7:25‘A time and times and the dividing of time’ is a coded expression, with no clear indication of an exact length in years — generally understood as a poetic way of saying ‘a limited period,’ rather than a calendar calculation.
Daniel 7:26The little horn’s power is not merely defeated but ‘consumed... unto the end’ — an emphasis on the finality of its fall, leaving no room for it to rise again afterward.
Daniel 7:27Handing the kingdom over ‘to the people of the saints of the most High’ is the text’s own explanation of what the figure of the son of man represents: not a single individual seizing power, but the faithful people collectively receiving an everlasting kingdom.
Daniel 7:28Keeping the vision ‘in my heart’ without telling anyone right away suggests Daniel needed time to process alone the emotional weight of what he had seen before writing it all down.