As I watched, its wings were plucked off, it stood on two feet, and a human heart was given it.
5 The second beast was like a bear, with three ribs between its teeth. It was told to devour many bodies.
6 The third beast was like a leopard, with four wings and four heads.
7 The fourth beast had ten horns and big iron teeth.
8 Another little horn came out of the ten horns of the fourth beast, where three horns were plucked off by their roots. This horn had human eyes and a mouth that said great things.
9 The Ancient of days had white clothes, with wool hair. He sat on a fiery throne, with wheels of fire.
10 He was served by millions of people, and 100 million stood in front of him to be judged by him.
11 The horn spoke great words, and the beast was killed, and its body was burned.
12 The other beasts had their dominions taken away, but they lived for a season and a time.
13 I saw the Son of man come with the clouds of heaven to the Ancient of days.
14 He was given an everlasting kingdom, and everyone would have to serve him.
15 This saddened the spirit in my body and my head troubled me.
17-18 He said that the four beasts are kings, but the saints will take the kingdom and possess it forever.
19 I asked him about the fourth beast with the iron teeth and brass nails.
23 He said that the fourth beast will be the fourth kingdom, which will devour the whole earth and break it in pieces.
24 The ten horns are ten future kings. There will be another who will subdue the kings.
25 He'll say bad things about God, and he'll wear out the saints. He'll change times and laws until a time and times and the dividing of time.
26 But his dominion will be taken away and destroyed.
27 The kingdom will be given to the saints. It'll be an everlasting kingdom that everyone will serve.
28 And that's the end of the matter. But my thoughts trouble me.
A few more words about this episode
In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon (7:1)
Belshazzar was the son of Nabonidus, the last king of Babylon. Although Belshazzar was never king of Babylon, he lived in sixth century BCE, which is when Daniel's vision is claimed to have taken place.
Here's what I saw in my vision (7:2)
In the first six chapters, the book of Daniel refers to Daniel in the third person. Now, in chapter 7, it switches to the first person.
For a season and a time (7:12)
No one knows what this means. Some say that "a season" corresponds to 360 years, since a Jewish year was 360 days and a day is a year to God. But what is "a time." It's all nonsense, of course, but the times and seasons in the book of Daniel is the source of much of the end times prophecy.
He said that the four beasts are kings. (7:17)
If the interpretation of Daniel's vision sounds a familiar, it should. It is just a repeat of Daniel's interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar's dream in Daniel 2 (Episode 210). The beasts represents four successive kingdoms: Babylon, Media, Persia, and Greece. The ten horns were the Seleucids, who fought over Alexander the Great's empire after his death. And the little horn was Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who was ruling Israel at the time the book of Daniel was written (ca. 165 BCE). The apocalyptic prophecy here, as before, is that God will destroy this evil king and Israel will rule the earth forever, with the other "prophecies" presented as though they were in the future.
A time and times and the dividing of time (7:25)
More nonsense for end times calculators. Or as the SBL Study Bible says, "The persecution for a limited time, three and a half years, half of the perfect number seven." (Well, that explains it!)
