Daniel 7:4

4. All expositors refer this to the Babylonian empire, which is here represented by the king of beasts as previously by the chief of metals (Daniel 2:38). It has long been supposed that the lion was equipped with eagle’s wings to symbolize the swiftness with which he could swoop upon his prey; but it is more likely that the figure was taken from the innumerable representations in Assyria of winged lions with human faces as the symbol of imperial strength and divine authority. This royal symbol was well understood by the prophets (Jeremiah 49:19; Jeremiah 49:22; Jeremiah 50:17; Jeremiah 50:44). Herder suggestively remarks (1, 57), “If Daniel sees a vision in which animal forms denote kingdoms, symbolic shapes of that kind must have been no strangers to his waking world; for we dream only of forms which we see when awake and in our dreams give them new and various combinations.”

The wings thereof were plucked This probably indicates a diminution in the swiftness and aggressiveness of the Babylonian invasions before the end of the empire. Although it may possibly contain an obscure reference to the account given in Daniel 4:28-36, where Nebuchadnezzar became outwardly beastly (as his whole empire had previously been), yet the cases are so dissimilar as to make even a vague reference doubtful. Most recent expositors believe that the expression and a man’s heart was given to it refers to the “humanizing of the kingdom;” although Behrmann and Thomson think, with greater probability, that it has reference to the weakening of the kingdom, since a lion’s heart has always been a symbol of strength. (Compare 2 Samuel 17:10.) Certainly this figure of a plucked beast lifted up and made to stand upon his [hind] feet, as a man, does not impress us as an attempt to convey the idea that this empire at this time was “the best of all” (Prince), having “superior intelligence” (Bevan) to all the empires which had preceded it; rather it vividly expresses the denuding of the empire of its natural and divinely granted powers and of its “lion heart,” and, in consequence of this, its defeat by the second beast, who immediately appears on the stage of action as the heir of its greatness. The battle between the lion and the bear and the latter’s victory is taken for granted.