I beheld till thrones were set, and the Ancient of days did sit his raiment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool; his throne was flames of fire, [and] its wheels burning fire.
Daniel's night vision shifts without warning. The beasts rising out of a churning sea give way to a courtroom, where One takes His seat in snow-white clothing on a throne of fire.
Older English Bibles read "the thrones were cast down," which suggests destruction. Commentators differ on the wording. One says the true reading is "set up," which the ESV's "thrones were placed" carries. Another says both words come to the same thing. Either way, this is not God steering events from behind the scenes. It is a court sitting down.
"I saw until the thrones were set up." That is how it ought to read, instead of "cast down." This is not just my opinion. It is the way the best ancient and modern translations of Scripture all understand it... There you have a clear picture of the divine glory in judgment. It is not just God working through providence on the earth, but the process of judgment that God Himself will set up.
The wording comes from a courtroom custom, and the court has records to open.
"Cast down," or "placed," as in the Revised Version, both really mean the same thing. The reference is to the Eastern custom of throwing down cushions for the judges to sit on... This judgment is set, and the books are opened. The court looks into how the Gentile Empires used the power God granted them. The great Judge of all examines the doings of the little horn in particular.
The court does not assemble at random. It answers something said out loud.
Afterwards the thrones are set, and the Ancient of days sits. It is a session of judgment, the throne of Jehovah's judgment; it is not said where, but its effect is on earth. The words of the little horn are what set the judgment in motion. It falls on the beast, which is destroyed, and its body given to the flames. The other beasts lost their dominion, but their lives went on. The fourth loses its life along with its dominion.
The title points to the eternal God — and the same chapter shows who holds it. This session is also not the last judgment.
That the Ancient of days is the Eternal God is beyond question. It is just as clear, from verse 22 and from Revelation 1, that the Son of man is the Ancient of days, the Eternal God. God has committed all judgment to Him because He is the Son of man. Scripture plainly declares the scene before us to be a session of judgment — not the session of judgment of the Great White Throne in Revelation 20, but a session for the judgment of the living... in preparation for the setting up of His kingdom.
Daniel and John see the same Person. Each shows a different half of the picture.
In the Revelation the two glories are both united in the Person of Christ. Revelation 1 shows us one like the Son of man. But when we come to the description of Him, some of the features are exactly the same as the ones given here to the Ancient of days. His garment is said to be as white as snow, the hair of His head like pure wool, and so on. The Jewish prophet sees Christ simply as man. The Christian prophet sees Him as man, but as God as well.
Fire marks the throne, its wheels, and the stream flowing out. Scripture uses that image with a settled meaning.
The throne was like a fiery flame, its wheels as burning fire, and a fiery stream came out from before Him. Fire is always a symbol in Scripture of the holiness of God applied in judgment.
Daniel counts more than one throne, yet names only one occupant. John's vision fills in the rest.
When Daniel beheld the thrones, not "cast down" but "set up," he speaks of no one sitting but One, the Ancient of days. When John saw thrones, others were sitting on them, and judgment was given to them.
Another writer says who those other thrones are for.
Not one throne, but many; for the glorified saints are to have part in this judgment.
- Provocation — The boasting of the little horn brings the court into session. Defiance of God has a limit.
- Session — The thrones are set up, not cast down. A court sits, the books open, and the Gentile empires answer for how they used their power.
- Person — The Ancient of days is the eternal God. Verse 22 and Revelation 1 show the Son of man with the same snow-white features.
- Fire — The flaming throne is holiness applied in judgment. This court judges the living, not the session of the Great White Throne in Revelation 20.
- Result — The fourth beast alone loses its life along with its dominion, and the way opens for the Son of man's kingdom.
A stream of fire 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.
Daniel's night vision moves from a parade of beast-like empires to a courtroom of fire, with countless attendants and open books. Three questions follow: who is on trial, when does this court sit, and what do the books hold?
Older Bibles read "cast down." That sounds like thrones toppling. One writer says the words mean the opposite.
"I saw until the thrones were set up." That is how it should read, instead of "cast down." This is not just my opinion. The best ancient and modern translations of Scripture all read it this way. There you see a clear picture of the divine glory in judgment. This is not just God's ordinary working in events on the earth. It is the process of judgment that God Himself will set up... At whatever time this may be supposed to take place, it is clear that it is a divine judgment.
Flame runs through every detail — the throne, its wheels, the stream pouring out from before Him. Commentators read that fire as a settled biblical symbol.
That the Ancient of Days is the Eternal God is beyond doubt. It is just as clear, both from verse 22 and from Revelation 1, that the Son of man is the Ancient of Days, the Eternal God. All judgment has been committed to Him because He is the Son of man... The throne was like a fiery flame, and its wheels like burning fire. A fiery stream came out from before Him. Fire is always a symbol in Scripture of the holiness of God as applied in judgment.
Readers often place this court at the very end of time. One writer points instead to what its verdict produces.
The scene described is like the judgment of the wicked after the thousand years in Revelation 20, and many suppose it is the same. But however common this mistake is, what is described here is the carrying out of judgment on earth. It is the transfer of power from the hand of man to that of Christ... What is the result declared here? It is the destruction of the horn and of the beast. It is the transfer of the "kingdom, dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven" into the hands of the Son of man, with all His saints.
Daniel counts two groups: thousands who serve, and myriads who stand. One writer says who they are and what they do.
Surrounding the throne are thousands of angelic beings. Carrying out judgment is one of the functions of the angels. Matthew 25 describes the judgment of the living nations. It opens with the Son of Man coming to His throne of glory, "and all the holy angels with him" (Matthew 25:31).
Daniel sees thrones in the plural, yet he names only one occupant. One writer turns to Revelation for the rest.
Daniel has already spoken of these thrones: "I saw," he says, "until the thrones were placed"... "and the Ancient of Days did sit" (Daniel 7:9). But there was then no word about who occupied the thrones. It is the part of Revelation to fill in the picture on its heavenly side, and to show us who these are. They are not angels. There may be "principalities" among the angels, but Scripture never says they will reign with Christ. They are redeemed men.
God does not need reminding. The books are read as evidence produced in public, against the boastful power Daniel had just been watching.
God will take public and formal notice of the acts and words of this daring enemy. It is for this purpose that the books will be opened (v. 10). Those books will hold perfectly accurate records of this ungodly sinner's deeds. The sentence will be passed as the glory of Him who will sit on His holy throne demands.
- Court. The thrones are set up, not cast down: God opens a formal court session, not a slow drift of history.
- Judge. The One seated is the Ancient of Days, the Eternal God, and the Son of man. The fire around Him is His holiness applied in judgment.
- Attendants. Thousands serve and myriads stand. They are angels, and carrying out judgment is part of their work.
- Records. The opened books hold an exact account of one man's deeds. The sentence answers to the glory of the One on the throne.
- Verdict. Not the end of the world, but the end of the beast. Power passes from the hand of man to Christ and His saints.
I beheld therefore, because of the voice of the great words that the horn spoke; I beheld till the beast was slain, and its body destroyed, and it was given up to be burned with fire.
The Ancient of Days has taken His seat for judgment. Daniel's attention now snaps back to earth, to a small horn still boasting while the court sits. The verse answers two questions: what triggers the sentence, and how far it reaches.
The trigger is not an army or an invasion. It is speech. The horn boasts while God sits in judgment.
The occasion then was "the great words which the horn spoke." Revelation 13 says of the beast: "The beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words… It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming His name and His dwelling and those who dwell in heaven." Because of these blasphemies the Ancient of Days came and sat for judgment on His fiery throne. These daring acts of defiance against God filled his cup of iniquity to overflowing. Judgment came upon him, swift and sure.
The prophet is not just reporting. He is watching something that shocks him: open blasphemy in full view of the throne.
Now the little horn takes up all of Daniel's attention (v. 11)… He is amazed to hear this horn speaking blasphemous things there, in the very presence of God. He wondered that God should permit it; but he saw the beast slain. This was the result.
Notice the switch. The horn does the talking, but the beast dies. God treats the two as one.
The prophet says, "I looked then because of the sound of the great words that the horn was speaking. And as I looked, the beast was killed." God judges the beast for the words of the horn. Beast and horn are one as to responsibility before God. Now a "horn" too is a "king" (Rev. 17:12). Here even in Daniel is a king so morally identified with the beast that he draws down the judgment of God upon it.
One writer points out what Daniel does not say.
Daniel says he looked "because of the sound of the great words that the horn was speaking" — not until the horn was put down, but until "the beast was killed." This implies that the little horn had managed to govern the entire beast.
Fire and a throne can make a reader think of the last courtroom of all. This scene comes earlier.
Here the judgment deals above all with the little horn and the beast he ruled… Blasphemous defiance of God will mark the last head of the revived Roman Empire. That defiance will bring swift and overwhelming judgment on him and on his dominion. Note that the judgment Daniel speaks of is not the final judgment of the Great White Throne, when God will raise the dead and judge them. Daniel speaks of the judgment of the living nations which will precede the reign of Christ.
Empires usually fade slowly and break apart. This one ends in a different way.
What happened to the Roman empire in the past was the ordinary course and decline of a great nation. Barbarian hordes tore it up, and separate kingdoms took its place. But prophecy tells us of something altogether different. It warns of a judgment that disposes of the beast in a completely different way from the others… The first three beasts lost their imperial dignity, but they themselves could still be said to exist. The fourth empire is different. The hour that destroys its dominion is the hour that destroys the empire itself.
Daniel sees a body given to fire. Revelation fills in what happens to the person behind the empire.
Add verse 11 to the sentence passed on his dominion, and we see what the judgment was on his person. Verse 11 itself speaks only of the "body" of the beast… Revelation 19 gives us more information. It belongs to the same judgment. There we read that both the beast and the false prophet were thrown alive into a lake of fire burning with sulphur (v. 20). He is stripped of his dominion. Like Belshazzar, he has been weighed in the balances and found wanting. He suffers with the false prophet the vengeance of eternal fire.
Another writer notes what the word "alive" rules out.
The beast and the false prophet are the personal enemies of Christ. So in the day of battle the Lord meets them in person, and both are thrown alive into the lake. They never die the death common to man, so no resurrection awaits them. Death does not separate their soul and body. They go into the lake alive.
- Words start it. The sentence falls because of what the horn says. Blasphemy spoken in front of the seated Ancient of Days fills the cup.
- Words spread it. The horn boasts, the beast dies: the ruler and his empire are one before God, so his guilt becomes its ruin.
- Words end it. The first three empires lost their rule but kept their lives. The fourth loses rule and life in the same hour.
- Timing. This is the judgment of the living nations before Christ's reign. It is not the Great White Throne, where God raises the dead.
- Destination. Revelation fills in the fire. The beast goes into the lake alive: no death, and so no resurrection.
As for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away; but their lives were prolonged for a season and a time.
The vision has just shown the fourth beast destroyed, and now the prophet looks back at the three empires before it. Verse 12 says they lost their rule but kept their lives, which raises a question about what God does with defeated powers.
This verse does not describe the next event after the judgment of the fourth beast. It takes a step back in the vision.
We must not think that this followed directly on what comes before. Daniel had already seen all four beasts. Now, after the judgment of the last one, the vision goes back to tell us what had been done with the first three. That was not done at this session of judgment. It happened earlier, in God's judicial dealings in His providential government.
Losing an empire is not the same as disappearing. The verse separates power from survival.
We still have the remains of the Chaldeans, or of the races once called by that name. Persia continues as a kingdom, and the Greeks have lately become one. They exist, then, though not as imperial powers. We have these races of men, more or less, representing those powers — smaller, it is true, and no longer holding dominion as empires. This is the meaning of verse 12.
Another writer names what became of each of the three.
When Babylon lost its imperial place in the earth, it did not cease to exist. It remained a flourishing city for centuries afterwards. Peter wrote his first letter there (1 Peter 5:13). Persia and Greece remain before our eyes to this day, though stripped of their ancient power and glory.
No public act of judgment struck down the first three empires. The ordinary movement of history displaced them, and God was behind that movement.
God had been hidden, so to speak, during the time of the other beasts. Yet His providence was at work. The Persians replaced the Babylonians, and the Greeks replaced the Persians. All of this happened the way things still happen now: by the arrangement of that providence which governs the world. It happened this way because the Ancient of Days was not yet sitting to execute judgment for the acts committed against Him, though His rights can never be cancelled.
For the first three, dominion went long before life did. For the last, both go at once.
After Babylon lost its dominion, it continued to exist for some time, and so did Persia. But the destruction of the fourth beast will be complete. The others lived on after their empire fell. Here the judgment and the destruction go together.
That difference marks out one empire as unique in the whole series.
The Babylonian lost its imperial power; so did the Medo-Persian, as well as the Macedonian or Grecian, never to rise again. Yet they were all to exist, and so they do still; but their dominion was to be taken away, as it is laid down in Dan. 7:12. There was to be no revival of their imperial character, though a prolonging in life was given them when their dominion was lost.
One writer answers a fair question: why should anyone care now about empires that fell so long ago?
These empires, in the day of their power, had to do with God's people, and whatever concerns His people touches His glory. That gives them deep and lasting importance. Their lives were also prolonged. So to the end of the times of the Gentiles, there will still exist nations that represent these once powerful empires. At the time of the end, these nations will stand against the people of God — the Jews.
- Backward glance. The verse steps back from the fourth beast's judgment. It tells what God had already done with the first three.
- Providence. Babylon fell to Persia, and Persia to Greece. The God who governs the world arranged it, without a court sitting in judgment.
- Prolonged. They lost dominion, not life. These peoples lost world rule but kept a smaller existence as nations.
- Different end. The fourth beast loses dominion and life in the same hour. It revives before that judgment, but after it, it is gone for ever.
- Still on stage. The old empires survive, so their nations return at the time of the end and stand against God's people. That is why their history matters.
I saw in the night visions, and behold, there came with the clouds of heaven [one] like a son of man, and he came up even to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him.
Daniel's night vision has just shown four beasts rising out of the sea — empires that grab, tear and devour. Then a figure appears who is not a beast at all but a man, and God hands Him everything the beasts fought over.
The earlier scenes end in judgment; this one shows what that judgment made room for.
The judgment of the beast clears the way for the setting up of the Kingdom of Christ. This glorious event is foretold by a third vision, in which Daniel sees one like the Son of Man come with the clouds of heaven. He receives His kingdom as Man from God, the Ancient of Days. His dominion is world-wide, embracing "all people, nations, and languages." His dominion will be everlasting. It will not, like other kingdoms, pass away. It will never be destroyed.
The vision also names the One this Man comes to.
A new vision follows (verses 13 and 14), in contrast with the powers pictured as savage beasts. The new object that stands out is "one like the Son of man." ... The Ancient of days stands for God Himself, "the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity."
The title matters. Commentators say it is wider than "Messiah," and that the change of title followed His rejection.
On Daniel 7: it is not now the Messiah, owned as King in Zion, but ONE in the form of the Son of man, a title of far greater and much wider meaning. It is the change from Psalm 2 to Psalm 8, brought about by the rejection of the Messiah.
The word "like" has made some readers doubt that this figure is Christ at all.
Some object that John would hardly have said of Christ "one like to the Son of man." The objection has no force. It is exactly what he does say in Revelation 1, where our Lord alone can be meant, beyond dispute. The likeness is to a character, not to a person.
He does not seize the kingdom. God gives it to Him — and the vision shows the Giver and the Receiver as two Persons.
The Ancient of days is the Son of man; but in this vision they are distinguished. It is often so in the Psalms. The Messiah is Jehovah; and yet in Psalm 110 Jehovah speaks to Adonai: "Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool." It is the mystery of the divine Persons. They are distinguished in Daniel's vision because, as Son of man, our Lord receives everything from God. So, after He is brought to the Ancient of days, it says, "There was given Him a dominion."
In Revelation 1 John sees Christ and describes Him with the very features Daniel gave the Ancient of Days.
Head and hairs white like wool remind us of the Ancient of Days in Daniel 7:9. The Son of Man comes to Him with the clouds of Heaven, and receives all the rights and dignities of the Kingdom. But verse 22 of the same chapter lets us know that the Son of Man is Himself the Ancient of Days! ... So the Son of Man and the Ancient of Days are one!
Daniel is the Jewish prophet here; John, writing Revelation, is the Christian one.
The Jewish prophet sees Christ only as man. The Christian prophet sees Him as man, but as God as well.
The clearest evidence that this vision is about Christ came from His own lips.
Can there be any doubt that the Saviour had this prophecy in mind? He said to the high priest, "But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven" (Matthew 26:64).
The vision does not end with one Man crowned. Others share what He receives.
In the third vision it is the Son of Man that comes with the clouds of heaven, and to Him is given the kingdom that will never pass away. Here we learn a further truth. The people of God of all ages — all those who through the history of the world have been in touch with heaven — will share with the Son of Man in His glorious reign.
- Beasts judged. God cuts down the four empires first; only then does the Man appear. The kingdom changes hands.
- A Man crowned. He comes as "one like the Son of man" — a wider title than Messiah, reaching to all nations. It is the change from Psalm 2 to Psalm 8, brought about by His rejection.
- A kingdom given. He does not grab it. He comes to the Ancient of Days and receives it, because as Man He takes everything from God.
- God Himself. Later in the chapter the Son of Man turns out to be the Ancient of Days, and John describes Him with the same features — Man and God in one Person.
- Never destroyed. His rule reaches all peoples and never ends — and the people of God of every age share it with Him.
And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all peoples, 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.
Daniel has watched beast-like empires rise and rule the earth. Now a figure like a man comes to the Ancient of Days, and this verse says what He is given, who gives it, and how long it lasts.
World power looks impressive from the outside. This vision shows what it looks like to God.
Instead of the stone cut out of the mountain, you have the Son of Man Himself coming and taking the kingdom. But the general meaning of the visions is the same. It is striking, however, that in the seventh chapter you have not the image of man, such as the world sees, but what God sees. All the authority and power of this world is only that of the beast. Man in honour, without understanding, is like the beasts that perish. He is not even a man.
This is not one empire replacing another. The rule of the earth passes into the hands of a Man.
One like the Son of man is brought to the Ancient of days. There He receives the kingdom and universal dominion. It is the rule of Jehovah entrusted to man in the Person of Christ, put in the place of the kingdom of the beast. Notice that this is not the carrying out of the judgment spoken of earlier. It is the receiving of the earthly kingdom, for in all this the government of the earth is the subject.
Writers differ here. Some read the two figures as distinct in the vision.
The Jewish prophet sees Christ simply as man. The Christian prophet sees Him as man, but as God as well.
That leaves a question about the two figures in the vision.
As Ancient of Days, judgment is committed to His hands; as Son of Man He receives His kingdom. We think both are pictures of the same Person, the Lord Jesus Christ, seen in different settings.
The sceptre could have come from more than one hand. Daniel's night visions show which hand He would take it from.
He would take that sceptre neither from the devil nor from men, but from the hand of God only. We learn this from Daniel's night visions.
The same One who receives it here is the One earth threw out.
Rejected by men, the Son of Man was seen by Stephen standing at the right hand of God. There was the One whom God delighted to honour — Man in the highest place in heaven — the Son of Man glorified! From there He will soon be brought out in public, "with the clouds of heaven," as Daniel 7:13 foretells. He will receive dominion and glory over the earth — the very place where men treated Him so shamefully.
Three things mark this kingdom out: whose hand gives it, how far it reaches, and how long it lasts.
He receives His kingdom as Man from God, the Ancient of Days. His dominion is world-wide, taking in "all peoples, nations, and languages." His dominion will be everlasting. It will not, like other kingdoms, pass away. It will never be destroyed.
The word "everlasting" needs care. The prophets of Israel do not carry the story as far as the New Testament does.
No one will ever take it from Him, and no other power will follow Him. It will be everlasting in the sense of lasting as long as the world lasts. But strictly speaking, this is not an eternal scene. The Jewish prophets show you the millennium. They do not unfold what the New Testament does: that when all things are subdued to God, even the Father, God shall be all in all.
Daniel found this vision disturbing. It reads very differently for us.
What disturbed him may well encourage us. The beast-like empires of men will vanish in judgment. All dominion will belong to the Son of Man. Under Him, saints in heaven and saints on earth will exercise the authority He gives them.
- Given, not grabbed. The kingdom is placed in His hands by God; He refused every other route to the throne.
- Given to a Man. God puts the rule of the earth into the hands of a Man, Christ, in place of the kingdom of the beast.
- Given to the rejected One. The Man honoured in heaven is the One earth threw out, and He returns to reign where He was shamefully treated.
- Given without limit. It reaches all peoples, nations and languages, and lasts as long as the world lasts. The New Testament carries the story further still.
- Given to be shared. Saints in heaven and on earth will rule under Him. What disturbed Daniel encourages us.