He said thus The fourth beast shall be a fourth kingdom upon the earth, which shall be different from all the kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.
Daniel asked what the fourth beast meant, and the angel answers plainly: it stands for a kingdom. Two questions remain — which empire is meant, and whether its devouring lies behind us or still ahead.
The angel does not leave the symbol open. He names a kingdom, then describes how it governs, how far it reaches, and what it does to those who resist.
The angel explains the vision of the fourth beast. We are told plainly that it represents "a fourth kingdom on earth." This we know was the Roman Empire. It was "different from all the kingdoms" because it took a form of government that combined rule by one man with rule by the people. The iron and clay of the image had pictured this beforehand. Its rule was almost universal, so it could well be said to "devour the whole earth." By treading down and breaking in pieces, it subdued the nations, and crushed those who refused to submit. So we have a picture of the Roman Empire in the day of its first power.
Why picture a government as a wild animal? Daniel's own book answers, and the rule in view is Gentile rule — the rule of the nations outside Israel.
We need not travel beyond Daniel's book to learn that Gentile rule is simply bestial in God's sight. The same powers that were shown to Nebuchadnezzar as metals in Dan. 2 were shown to Daniel as wild beasts in Dan. 7. Rev. 13, 17, referring clearly to the time of the end, confirm this. Scripture speaks of the last great united monarchy of Christendom as a beast out of the sea, and out of the abyss. The symbol means that Gentile power, and especially in its last phase, is completely without conscience and without God.
The difference is not only in ferocity. Two details mark it out: what this empire is made of, and how many rulers it ends with.
Nothing but the Roman Empire matches the feet of iron and clay. Nothing else offers a parallel to the ten toes in one picture and the ten horns in the other. Their only true meaning is ten kings reigning together. No other power that ever held sway can be so truly compared to iron that "breaks to pieces and shatters all things," or to a ravenous beast of no known kind with great iron teeth that "devoured and broke in pieces and stamped what was left with its feet." Then the Germanic clay entered. It shows the brittleness of independent will, in contrast with the old Roman way of holding together around one centre. That self-will broke up the empire in the past, and it will come to a head in the tenfold division of the future, in that revival of the empire which Daniel 7 assumes before judgment falls, and which Revelation 17 reveals plainly.
Verse 23 describes something history records. The verse after it forces a decision about time.
Next we are told that "the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise" (v. 24). This is the crucial point in the interpretation. Verse 23 refers without doubt to the past. So the question arises: are these ten kings past or future? Some argue for what many call the historical interpretation, and hold that the prophecy has already been fulfilled. There is a fatal objection to this theory. Once this fourth kingdom is judged, the kingdom of the Son of man at once succeeds it and takes its place (vv. 13, 14, 26, 27; compare also Dan. 2:43-44). What event in the past, we may well ask, could answer, even in the smallest degree, to what those Scriptures speak of?
Commentators differ over how much of this verse is history and how much is still coming. One writer reads its trampling and breaking as a scene still to come.
We have watched the Beast treading down the earth and breaking it in pieces (Dan. 7:23) — a display of senseless brute force — and his partner in crime, the Antichrist, morally darkening and deceiving the world.
The prophecy does not stop at conquest. It follows this empire to its last ruler, and to what heaven does about him.
We have a crowd of detailed predictions of an unmatched kind. There are the many horns in the last empire at its close. There is the bold presumption and restless ambition of its last chief, who from a small beginning ruled the rest. Not content with trampling down the saints, he rose up in blasphemy against God and His rights. That called out summary and final judgment on all, and heaven acted to establish the everlasting kingdom of power and glory.
- Named — the angel calls the beast a kingdom, and commentators identify it as Rome.
- Bestial — Scripture draws it as a wild animal, because it rules without conscience and without God.
- Different — iron strength mixed with brittle self-will, ending in rule shared by ten kings.
- Unfinished — verse 23 describes what history saw. The ten kings are still ahead, since the Son of Man's kingdom takes over the moment this one is judged.
- Judged — the devouring ends in blasphemy against God, then in judgment. Heaven then sets up the kingdom that lasts.
And as to the ten horns, out of this kingdom shall arise ten kings; and another shall arise after them; and he shall be different from the former, and he shall subdue three kings.
The angel now gives Daniel the plain meaning of what he saw. The ten horns on the fourth beast stand for ten kings. After them an eleventh rises, unlike the rest, who puts down three of them. Does this belong to history, or is it still ahead?
The angel does not leave the symbol open. Horns stand for kings, and the fourth empire ends divided.
Daniel shows the Roman Empire divided into ten kingdoms — "out of this kingdom ten kings shall arise." After this another little horn comes up, the same as the beast in Revelation. He subdues three kingdoms and wields the whole power of the empire, and God judges that empire because of his blasphemy.
Writers press a simple historical test against the verse. Rome, as the world has known it, never matched this description.
"It had ten horns," and these are ten kings (verse 24). This was never true in the past. The Roman empire was under one government. It is true that in the last days of its power many of the emperors shared the running of their vast lands with others. But there was never anything like what Daniel saw in his vision. Here we have ten horns — ten kings — and one rising among them to become their leader and head. What does this prove? It proves that this vast power, scattered and broken for so long, still has a history ahead of it. Scripture cannot be broken. Every word of it must come true.
Commentators differ on how far past history already pictured this. Some allow a partial application, while holding that the main fulfilment is still ahead:
The fourth or Roman power is just as clearly divided into ten horns, ruling at the same time, with one small horn at its rise that pulls up three of them by the roots. That horn is as remarkable for its intelligence as for its pride and blasphemous boldness. Here, though, we stand before something that still awaits its fulfilment, even if we admit a partial application to past history. By its lawlessness that horn brings on more than the loss of rule that God allowed to fall on the earlier beasts. It brings direct, distinct, divine judgment when God's kingdom appears in the person of the Son of Man.
The angel says the newcomer is unlike the ten. The difference lies in what he stands for.
He is different from the ten kings because they stand for different kingdoms. This king stands for a special power that rises up among the ten kingdoms, and he gains his territory by subduing three of them. It is "his dominion" that judgment deals with at the end (verse 26). So it seems certain that the little horn, while subduing three of the kings, gains power over the whole empire.
Subduing three is the start, not the finish. Commentators read the remaining seven as drawn in behind him.
The conclusion is unavoidable: the little horn is none other than the head of the revived Roman empire in Western Europe in the last days. So the little horn rises after the ten kingdoms are formed. He subdues three of them, whether by military strength or by other means. Then the other seven join with the three he has conquered in one vast confederation, and the little horn becomes its imperial head.
Some have read the horn as a system rather than a man. The reply points to what the horn does: it speaks, and it conquers.
But the great words of the horn bring down judgment on the beast, and this assures us still more that the horn is a person. A system of government cannot be held responsible; for that you must have a living being. Nor could we think of ten systems of government, an eleventh of which subdued three, as is said of the "horn." But if a real king is meant, nothing is more natural.
Prophecy shows more than one evil figure. Writers warn against merging them into one.
This person must not be confused either with the Antichrist on the one hand, or with the little horn of Dan. 8:9 on the other. Antichrist is a religious leader more than a political one. His kingly power seems to be limited to the land of Israel, where the people will accept him as the promised Messiah (Dan. 11:36). He will be in league with the Western chief, no doubt, but must not be confused with him. Scripture plainly says that the little horn of Dan. 8 rises out of one of the four divisions of Alexander's empire.
- Ten — The horns are ten kings arising out of the fourth kingdom, ruling side by side rather than in succession.
- Eleventh — After the ten, another rises who is different from them. He is a living person, not a system. Only a person speaks the great words that bring judgment.
- Three — His climb begins by putting down three kings; that conquest is the doorway, not the destination.
- Whole — Having taken three, he gains the whole empire; at the end judgment falls on his dominion.
- Future — No past form of Rome matched this picture. The verse points ahead to a confederacy still to come, which ends under God's direct judgment.