Daniel 7:1–8

Vision of the Four Beasts

7In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, ^aDaniel ¹had a dream and ^bvisions of his head while on his bed. Then he wrote down the dream, telling ²the main facts.

²Daniel spoke, saying, “I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the Great Sea. ³And four great beasts ^ccame up from the sea, each different from the other. ⁴The first was ^dlike a lion, and had eagle’s wings. I watched till its wings were plucked off; and it was lifted up from the earth and made to stand on two feet like a man, and a ^eman’s heart was given to it.

^5f“And suddenly another beast, a second, like a bear. It was raised up on one side, and had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. And they said thus to it: ‘Arise, devour much flesh!’

⁶“After this I looked, and there was another, like a leopard, which had on its back four wings of a bird. The beast also had ^gfour heads, and dominion was given to it.

⁷“After this I saw in the night visions, and behold, ^ha fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, exceedingly strong. It had huge iron teeth; it was devouring, breaking in pieces, and trampling the residue with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it, ⁱand it had ten horns. ⁸I was considering the horns, and ^jthere was another horn, a little one, coming up among them, before whom three of the first horns were plucked out by the roots. And there, in this horn, were eyes like the eyes ^kof a man, ^land a mouth speaking ³pompous words.