What are the four beasts in Daniel chapter 7?

In the general interpretation the angel says, "These great beasts, which are four, are four kings, which shall arise out of the earth. But the saints of the most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever." This explanation has been largely anticipated, but there are two or three points which demand further notice. The four kings are viewed as representing their several kingdoms, viz., Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome; and they will therefore, as has been before said, include their dynasties or successors on to the termination of their respective empires. In verse 3 these kings, the beasts, are said to come up from the sea, whereas here they are described as arising out of the earth. In the former passage they are viewed on the occasion of their appearance, and of their acquisition of governmental power, ascending their thrones out of the surging waves of the people; in this verse they are seen rather in their origin, "out of the earth," in contrast with Him who will come out of heaven to take His kingly power. These four then span the whole interval from the prophet's day, for Babylon was still in existence, until the coming of Christ in glory. On this account it is added, "But the saints of the most High shall take the kingdom," etc., after which there is no other, for they will possess it for ever and ever.

Daniel 7 gives us Daniel's vision of the four beasts coming up out of the great sea. “The great sea” is the name given to the Mediterranean, that sea entirely surrounded by countries composing the prophetical earth. Four beasts arising out of the sea answer to the four parts of the composite image of Nebuchadnezzar's dream. The difference between the monarch's vision and Daniel's is this: Nebuchadnezzar had unfolded to him the outward course of the great world-empires, whereas Daniel had their inward disposition revealed to him. We will just state them, and then give a few details. Lion, symbolical of Babylonian Empire. Bear, symbolical of Medo-Persian Empire. Leopard, symbolical of Grecian Empire. Fourth Beast, symbolical of Roman Empire.

Nebuchadnezzar’s dream was further emphasised by a vision Daniel had in the first year of the reign of Belshazzar, king of Babylon. Four beasts were seen arising out of the sea—a lion, a bear, a leopard, and a fourth beast, “dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly” (Dan. 7:7). These set forth the same four world-empires that were set forth in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of the composite image. The lion symbolised the Babylonian empire; the bear, the Medo-Persian; the leopard, the Grecian; the nondescript beast, the Roman.

(V. 17). First, Daniel is told that these four great beasts are four kings which shall arise out of the earth, and a little later we learn that "the fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth" (23). Evidently, then, "kings" are used to represent kingdoms. We cannot then be mistaken in viewing these four beasts as representing four great monarchies. In the vision they arise out of the sea; here they arise from the earth. The vision describes their providential or political origin, the interpretation their moral origin. Providentially they arise in a time of political upheaval; morally they are earthly, in contrast to the kingdom of the Son of Man, who comes from heaven.

But what is meant by these four symbolic "beasts"? The answer is furnished in verse 17: "These great beasts, which are four, are four kings which shall arise out of the earth." But by the term "kings," we are to understand kingdoms, for this is the interpretation in the 23rd verse. "Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms." And in the second chapter of this prophet we likewise learn that there should be four great kingdoms — manifestly the same kingdoms — which are set before us here. There was seen a great image, as is well known to most of you. It was composed of a golden head, silver breast and arms, brazen belly and thighs, iron legs, and feet part of iron and part of clay. Daniel was enabled to explain the meaning of all this to the king Nebuchadnezzar. He said to the king, "Thou art this head of gold. And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth. And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron," etc. Now the fourth iron kingdom in this case is represented as having ten toes, whilst in Dan. 7 the fourth beast had ten horns. Besides, in this chapter, as well as in the seventh, a solemn crisis destroys the fourth kingdom, and introduces a fifth and heavenly one. Here, a mystic "stone" smites the image on its feet, and grinds the whole to powder (see ver. 44 and 45); and there the judgment sits, and the Son of Man comes with the clouds of heaven. The millennium in both cases is the grand result. Manifestly, then, the four great beasts, in the vision of the seventh chapter, set forth the same four great kingdoms that are seen in this symbolic image of the second. In both chapters the rise of four grand, universal empires is presented. Let us now return to Dan. 7.

Daniel 7 presents us with further predictions of this judgment, as well as of the final character of evil which becomes the occasion of its execution. We have here, under other symbols, the same four monarchies which in Daniel 2 are represented by the image. Four great beasts come up from the sea. It is not here the gift of authority by the God of heaven, but the rise of these kingdoms, as matter of history, from the unformed tumultuous masses of mankind, represented in prophetic language by "the sea." Revelation 17:15, sufficiently establishes this to be the import of the symbol. "The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sits, are peoples and multitudes, and nations, and tongues." Babylon is figured by the first beast, which resembles a lion with eagle's wings. Medo-Persia is represented by the second "like unto a bear; and it raised up itself on one side, and it had three ribs in its mouth, between its teeth: and they said thus unto it, Arise, devour much flesh." The third beast, Grecia, is like a leopard with four wings of a fowl, and four heads: the well-known symbols of the fourfold division of the Grecian empire after Alexander's death. It is to the fourth beast, however, the Roman empire, that attention is chiefly called; and further, there is one particular in the representation of this, on which the prophet's attention seems to be specially concentrated, as to which he makes anxious inquiries, and with regard to which he receives fuller instruction. But let us turn to the details.

First, we have the vision of the fourth beast which the prophet beheld. "After 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." The same pen from which we have already quoted presents, in more forcible language than we can command, the substance and import of this vision. "The features of the fourth beast are clearly drawn. It is strong exceedingly; it devours and breaks in pieces, and tramples the residue under-foot. It has not the same character as the preceding monarchies. It has ten horns, that is to say, its strength was to be divided into ten distinct powers. Strength, and a rapacity sparing and respecting nothing, appropriating everything, or trampling it under foot without regard to conscience; such are morally the characteristics of the fourth beast. Its division into ten kingdoms distinguishes it as to its form. The uniform simplicity of the other empires will be lacking to it."

While the prophet is earnestly contemplating the horns of this fourth beast, a great change takes place among them. "I 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." The reader will bear in mind that we are occupied with the same subject as, in Dan. 2, is illustrated by the legs and feet of the image. The legs were iron — the feet and toes, part of potter's clay and part of iron. Then, verses 42-44 treat of the toes distinctively. "And as the toes of the feet were part of iron and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly broken. And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men; but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay. And in the days of these kings (the kings or kingdoms represented by the ten toes) shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed." Now the horns in Dan. 7 correspond to the toes in Dan. 2; and both chapters show that it is in this final state — when the strength of the kingdom has been divided into ten powers, and when, according to chap. 2, the power originally derived from God has not only deteriorated from gold to iron, but is attempting to ally itself with something of an entirely different nature, potter's clay — it is in this final state of the fourth kingdom that God sets up a kingdom which smites, overturns, and demolishes the whole fabric of Gentile power, taking its place and filling the whole earth. The modern attempts, throughout what was once the unbroken undivided Roman Empire, to unite monarchical with popular influences in what are called constitutional governments, can hardly fail to occur to the mind on perusing this prophecy. It is not intended by this remark to imply any censure on this or that mode of government. Such is not the province of the Christian. We simply note in the prophecy that which is given as the distinguishing form of Gentile power in the last stages of its existence. Moral characteristics are given elsewhere. Neither would we intimate that the ten toes can as yet be distinguished. A passage in Revelation, to be considered by and by, forbids such a thought. To return to chap. 7: it supplies us with particulars omitted in chap. 2. We have here indeed ten horns, as in the other case ten toes; but while the prophet considers the horns, there comes up among them another, an eleventh horn, and its actings are such as soon to absorb the attention of the prophet. It is a little horn, a power small and insignificant in its beginnings, but three out of the ten fall before it, plucked up by the roots; it is characterized by extraordinary sagacity and intelligence, having "eyes like the eyes of man;" and its boastings and pretensions are most loud and overbearing — it has "a mouth speaking great things." A session of judgment ensues. "I beheld till the thrones were set, 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. A 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." The chapter does not inform us where this session of judgment takes place; but all the effects of it which the prophecy records are upon the earth. "I 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." While such is the terrible end of the fourth beast, its existence and its dominion terminating together by the overwhelming judgment which overtakes it, it is noted by the prophet that with the three former kingdoms it had been otherwise. "As concerning the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away: yet their lives were prolonged for a season and time." The dominion of Babylon ceased on the night when Belshazzar was slain. The dominion of Persia ceased when it was overthrown by the first Grecian king. The dominion of Greece was first divided into four, and then taken away as one after another of these Grecian monarchies fell before the Roman legions. But there has always been, and is still, a kingdom of Persia. So is there now a kingdom of Greece. It is in this way that these beasts had their dominion taken away, but their lives prolonged. Not so the fourth Roman beast. "I beheld, till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame." Utter destruction is its doom. What is said, however, of those beasts which had their dominion taken away and their lives prolonged, sheds light on the statement in Dan.

The sea in the vision is the type of nations (Rev. 17:15). The three first beasts he saw represented the same great monarchies which were shown to Nebuchadnezzar in his dream by the gold, silver and brass. The lion Daniel saw first rising out of the sea stands for the Babylonian empire symbolized by the lion (Jer. 4:7). The plucking of the wings and the man's heart must refer to Nebuchadnezzar's insanity and restoration (chapter 4). The bear is the emblem of the Medo-Persian monarchy (corresponding to the chest of silver in the image). One side of the bear was raised up, higher than the other, because the Persian element was the strongest. The three ribs denote the conquest of three provinces by this power. The leopard with four heads and wings is the picture of the great Alexandrine empire, the Graeco-Macedonian (corresponding to the belly and thighs of brass in the image). The four wings denote its swiftness, the four heads the partition of this empire into the kingdoms of Syria, Egypt, Macedonia and Asia Minor. It is seen in the next chapter as the rough he-goat with a notable horn (Alexander the Great) and the little horn (Antiochus Epiphanes). The fourth beast was not seen in the first vision. Before we turn to the second night vision of the prophet we call attention to the fact that in the selection of beasts to represent these world powers who domineer the times of the Gentiles, God tells us that their moral character is beastly. The lion devours, the bear crushes, the leopard springs upon its prey.

(V. 3). Out of this agitated sea there arise four successive beasts diverse from one another. From the interpretation that follows, it seems conclusive that these four beasts present another aspect of the four great world empires, already depicted in the image of Nebuchadnezzar's dream. In the vision of the image these empires were presented as imposing but deteriorating powers in the sight of men. Here these same empires are presented in a form that expresses their successive moral deterioration in the sight of God. Cruelty, selfishness, rapacity, with no recognition or knowledge of God, marks the beast; and such are the solemn features of the world empires during the times of the Gentiles until the dominion of Christ is established.

Daniel (Dan. 7) symbolises the four great Gentile powers which were successively to exercise dominion in the earth under the figure of four beasts. The first, or Babylonian, "was like a lion, and had eagles' wings." The second, the Persian, was "like to a bear." The third, the Macedonian, was "like a leopard," and had four wings and four heads. The last was "dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly," "and it had ten horns." But it undergoes a great change, a little horn rising up, with "eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth speaking great things" (vv. 3-8) This little horn exercises the power of the beast and provokes its judgment. The beast is the Roman empire, whose latter history is thus sketched; "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. And 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 a time" (vv. 24, 25). But he is cut off and his kingdom "given to the people of the saints of the Most High" (v. 27)

Daniel 7: This begins the second part of the book. It gives the character of the Gentile kings, already noted in chapter 4, as before God, and their conduct towards those who acknowledge God. The four empires prophesied of in Dan. 2 are here further described under the figure of 'great beasts.' The lion is Chaldean; the bear, Medo-Persian; the leopard, Grecian (or Macedonian); and the fourth, which was like no living animal, Roman, distinguished as having ten horns (ten kings), Dan 7:24. Out of the last arises a little horn, a power which persecutes the saints for 3-1/2 years; but which is judged by the Ancient of Days, and the saints of the Most High, or rather of the high places, eventually take the kingdom. This power is doubtless the future Roman prince in the West, who will combine with Satan and the Antichrist, as in Rev. 13.