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Frederick Brotherton Meyer

F.B. Meyer's 'Through the Bible' Commentary - Daniel 7:1-14

God’s Everlasting Dominion Daniel 7:1-14 This chapter enumerates the succession of world-empires and rulers which bridge the gulf of centuries from the Captivity to the Second Advent. The lion represents Babylon, whose cruel and mighty kingdom was animated by marvelous intelligence; the bear, Persia; the leopard, Greece under Alexander the Great; and the fourth beast, with great iron teeth, Rome. The ten horns are ten kings, and these probably represent great European kingdoms which have... read more

G. Campbell Morgan

G. Campbell Morgan's Exposition on the Whole Bible - Daniel 7:1-28

We come now to the second half of the Book, which consists of visions, with their interpretations, granted to Daniel through three reigns. During the reign of Belshazzar two visions were granted to him, which constitute the prophetic light of that particular period. The first of these was of four beasts rising from the sea, the last of which had ten horns. In their midst arose another, which destroyed them. The vision then became a vision of the setting of thrones, and the appearing of the... read more

Peter Pett

Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible - Daniel 7:1

The Four World Empires (Daniel 7:1-8 ). ‘In the first year of Belshazzar, king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream and visions of his head on his bed. Then he wrote the dream and told the sum of the matters.’ ‘In the first year of Belshazzar, king of Babylon.’ Official documents at the time were all dated by the years of Nabonidus, who was Belshazzar’s father and outlived him, but Belshazzar had been given the ‘kingship’ of Babylon by his father when his father spent ten years fighting, and then... read more

Arthur Peake

Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible - Daniel 7:1-28

Daniel 7. The Vision of the Four Beasts.— From this point onwards the Book becomes purely apocalyptic. The vision of the four beasts is parallel to the vision of the image in Daniel 2. The beasts rise out of the sea. The first is a lion with eagle’ s wings, the second a bear, the third a leopard, the fourth a nameless and terrible creature with ten horns. Among the ten horns of the fourth beast there arises another “ little horn” with the eyes of a man, which destroys three of the other... read more

Matthew Poole

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible - Daniel 7:1

In the first year of Belshazzar: now Daniel begins to declare the visions God showed him at sundry times, therefore he goes back to the first year of Belshazzar. It is observed by the curious, that the word Belshazzar is here changed by the prophet, one letter transposed, which alters the signification greatly; for his name is בלאשצר Daniel 5:1, which signifies treasures searched out and possessed; but the word in the text is this, בלשאצר which means, Bel is consumed with the fire of an enemy,... read more

Joseph Exell

Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary - Daniel 7:1-7

HOMILETICSSECT. XXII.—THE VISION OF THE FOUR BEASTS (Chap. Daniel 7:1-7)We now come to the second and principal part of the Book of Daniel, the prophetical portion, the narratives it contains being merely introductory to the visions. The present, as well as the succeeding chapter, chronologically anterior to the preceding one, this vision having been given in the first year of the reign of Belshazzar, probably twenty-three before the events narrated in the preceding chapter; the editor or... read more

William Nicoll

Sermon Bible Commentary - Daniel 7:1-28

Daniel 7:1-28 The principles which underlie this prophecy are at once profoundly suggestive and exceedingly important. I. Foremost among them we find the terribly significant truth that earthly power in and of itself degenerates into brutality. The appropriate symbol of a great empire is a wild beast. II. Observe that the tendency of this brutality is to increase. The four beasts that Daniel saw came in this order; first the lion, then the bear, then the panther, then that composite, unnamed,... read more

Chuck Smith

Chuck Smith Bible Commentary - Daniel 7:1-28

Chapter 7Now at this point we come to, more or less, the end of the historic part of the book of Daniel. And beginning with chapter 7, we are now gonna go back and deal with visions that Daniel had during previous years. In other words, as we go to chapter 7, this particular vision came to Daniel in the first year that Belshazzar was king. You see, our story has taken us out to the end of Daniel's life during the reigns of Darius and Cyrus, the Medo-Persian kings. But now going back, we're... read more

Joseph Sutcliffe

Sutcliffe's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments - Daniel 7:1-28

Daniel 7:1 . In the first year of Belshazzar. The book of Daniel is divided into two parts; the first six chapters being historic, and the latter prophetic. This dream of Daniel’s has a connection with that which regarded Nebuchadnezzar, in Daniel 2:15; Daniel 2:26. Both those princes were proud and wicked men; yet God had mercy on them and on their people, and was graciously pleased to give them admonition by special revelations of future times. Daniel dreamed of the four beasts, but the... read more

John Trapp

John Trapp Complete Commentary - Daniel 7:1

Dan 7:1 In 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. Ver. 1. In the first year of Belshazzar. ] Here beginneth, to speak properly, the prophecy of Daniel, or rather the second part of Daniel’s works, which is concerning visions exhibited of God by divine revelations, not to others, but to himself. This vision is the subject and groundwork of the rest that follow to the end of... read more

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