Daniel 7:3

And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another.

King James Version · Read in your translation · Open the Explore console

Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
four	וְאַרְבַּ֤ע ve.'ar.Ba'	H703	four · conjunction + cardinal number, both genders singular absolute
great	רַבְרְבָ֔ן rav.re.Van	H7260	huge (in size) · adjective, feminine plural absolute
beasts	חֵיוָן֙ chei.Van	H2423	an animal · noun, common feminine plural absolute
up	סָלְקָ֖ן sal.Kan	H5559	to ascend · verb, qal active participle, feminine plural absolute
from	מִן min-	H4481	properly · preposition
sea	יַמָּ֑א ya.Ma'	H3221	a sea (as breaking in noisy surf) or large body of water · noun, common both genders singular determined + particle of affirmation
diverse	שָׁנְיָ֖ן sha.ne.Yan	H8133	to alter · verb, qal active participle, feminine plural absolute
one	דָּ֥א da'	H1668	this · demonstrative particle
from	מִן min-	H4481	properly · preposition
another	דָּֽא Da'	H1668	this · demonstrative particle

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

Revelation 13:1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crown…
Daniel 7:17 These great beasts, which are four, are four kings, which shall arise out of the earth.
Daniel 2:32-33 This image’s head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass,
Daniel 7:4-8 The first was like a lion, and had eagle’s wings: I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and mad…
Psalms 76:4 Thou art more glorious and excellent than the mountains of prey.
Ezekiel 19:3-8 And she brought up one of her whelps: it became a young lion, and it learned to catch the prey; it devoured men.
Zechariah 6:1-8 And I turned, and lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and, behold, there came four chariots out from between two mountains; and the mountains w…
Daniel 2:37-40 Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory.

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Daniel 7:1-8

The date of this chapter places it before ch. 5, which was in the last year of Belshazzar, and ch. 6, which was in the first of Darius; for Daniel had those visions in the first year of Belshazzar, when the captivity of the Jews in Babylon was drawing near a period. Belshazzar's name here is, in the original, spelt differently from what it used to be; before it was Bel-she-azar - Bel is he that treasures up riches. But this is Bel-eshe-zar - Bel is on fire by the enemy. Bel was the god of the Chaldeans; he had prospered, but is now to be consumed. We have, in these verses, Daniel's vision of the four monarchies that were oppressive to the Jews. Observe, I. The circumstances of this vision. D…

Read the whole note in the console

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Daniel 7:3

beasts--not living animals, as the cherubic four in Rev 4:7 (for the original is a different word from "beasts," and ought to be there translated, living animals). The cherubic living animals represent redeemed man, combining in himself the highest forms of animal life. But the "beasts" here represent the world powers, in their beast-like, grovelling character. It is on the fundamental harmony between nature and spirit, between the three kingdoms of nature, history, and revelation, that Scripture symbolism rests. The selection of symbols is not arbitrary, but based on the essence of things.

Adam Clarke on Daniel 7:3

Four great beasts came up from the sea - The term sea, in Hebrew ים yam, from המה hamah, to be tumultuous, agitated, etc., seems to be used here to point out the then known terraqueous globe, because of its generally agitated state; and the four winds striving, point out those predatory wars that prevailed almost universally among men, from the days of Nimrod, the founder of the Assyrian or Babylonish monarchy, down to that time, and in the end gave birth to the four great monarchies which are the subject of this vision. Diverse one from another - The people were different; the laws and customs different; and the administration of each differently executed.

John Gill on Daniel 7:3

The Church Fathers

But the prophet, full of disdain for these various metals, sees "four beasts." From those four beasts he understands that those four formidable kingdoms, which will strike fear into all people, will at last have an end, but there will be only one kingdom that will remain for all time without any end, namely, the kingdom that God has prepared for his saints.
— Theodoret of Cyrus, COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 7:2-3

And so when the different beast was shown to the blessed prophet Daniel and it was shown that it differed from the others, it is necessary for us to consider that he does not discuss any of the beasts as mere animals, but in a model and image he portrays the kingdoms which have arisen in this world, just as he portrays the beasts destroying humanity. For the Great Sea indicates the whole world, he says; "The four winds of heaven," [Daniel 7:2] which signal the fourfold creation. And so when he says, "I saw four beasts rising from the sea," [Daniel 7:3] he speaks concerning the kingdoms of this world.
— Hippolytus of Rome, Commentary on Daniel 4.2.1-3

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary and topics

Beast — This word is used of flocks or herds of grazing animals (Ex. 22:5; Num. 20:4, 8, 11; Ps. 78:48); of beasts of burden (Gen. 45:17); of eatable beasts (Prov. 9:2); and of swift beasts or dromedaries…
Daniel, Book of — Is ranked by the Jews in that division of their Bible called the Hagiographa (Heb. Khethubim). (See BIBLE.) It consists of two distinct parts. The first part, consisting of the first six chapters, is…
Sea, The — (Heb. yam), signifies (1) “the gathering together of the waters,” the ocean (Gen. 1:10); (2) a river, as the Nile (Isa. 19:5), the Euphrates (Isa. 21:1; Jer. 51:36); (3) the Red Sea (Ex. 14:16, 27;…
Dreams · Mentioned in scripture of: Daniel — Mentioned in scripture of: Daniel
Sea · .In Daniel’ s vision — .In Daniel’ s vision

Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).

Daniel 7:3

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Daniel 7:1-8

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Daniel 7:3

Adam Clarke on Daniel 7:3

John Gill on Daniel 7:3

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Daniel 7:3

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Daniel 7:1-8

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Daniel 7:3

Adam Clarke on Daniel 7:3

John Gill on Daniel 7:3

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

John Calvin on Daniel 7:3

Keil & Delitzsch on Daniel 7:2-3

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Daniel 7:3-7

Rashi on Daniel 7:3