Daniel 7:3
<< Daniel 7:3 >>
New International Version (©1984)
Four great beasts, each different from the others, came up out of the sea.

New Living Translation (©2007)
Then four huge beasts came up out of the water, each different from the others.

English Standard Version (©2001)
And four great beasts came up out of the sea, different from one another.

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
"And four great beasts were coming up from the sea, different from one another.

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another.

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
Four large animals, each one different from the others, came out of the sea.

King James 2000 Bible (©2003)
And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another.

American King James Version
And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another.

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

Douay-Rheims Bible
And four great beasts, different one from another, came up out of the sea.

Darby Bible Translation
And four great beasts came up from the sea, different one from another.

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

Webster's Bible Translation
And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another.

World English Bible
Four great animals came up from the sea, diverse one from another.

Young's Literal Translation
and four great beasts are coming up from the sea, diverse one from another.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And four great beasts came up from the sea - Not at once, but in succession. See the following verses. Their particular form is described in the subsequent verses. The design of mentioning them here, as coming up from, the sea, seems to have been to show that this succession of kingdoms sprang from the agitations and commotions among the nations represented by the heaving ocean. It is not uncommon for the prophets to make use of animals to represent or symbolize kingdoms and nations - usually by some animal which was in a manner peculiar to the land that was symbolized, or which abounded there. Thus in Isaiah 27:1, leviathan, or the dragon, or crocodile, is used to represent Babylon. See the note at that passage. In Ezekiel 29:3-5, the dragon or the crocodile of the Nile is put for Pharaoh; in Ezekiel 32:2, Pharaoh is compared to a young lion, and to a whale in the seas. In Psalm 74:13-14, the kingdom of Egypt is compared to the dragon and the leviathan.

So on ancient coins, animals are often used as emblems of kingdoms, as it may be added, the lion and the unicorn represent Great Britain now, and the eagle the United States. It is well remarked by Lengerke (in loc.), that when the prophets design to represent kingdoms that are made up of other kingdoms, or that are combined by being brought by conquest under the power of others, they do this, not by any single animal as actually found in nature, but by monsters - fabulous beings that are compounded of others, in which the peculiar qualities of different animals are brought together - as in the case of the lion with eagle's wings. Thus in Revelation 13:1, the Romish power is represented by a beast coming out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, Compare it. Ezra (Apocry.) 11:1, where an eagle is represented as coming from the sea with twelve feathered wings and three heads. As an illustration of the attempts made in the apocryphal writings to imitate the prophets, the whole of chapter 11 and chapter 12 of the second book of Ezra may be referred to.

Diverse one from another - Though they all came up from the same abyss, yet they differed from each other - denoting, doubtless, that though the successive kingdoms referred to would all rise out of the nations represented by the agitated sea, yet that in important respects they would differ from each other.


Clarke's Commentary on the Bible

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.


Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And four great beasts came up from the sea,.... Which are afterwards interpreted of four kings or kingdoms, Daniel 7:17, which rose up in the world, not at once, but successively, and out of the sea or world, through the commotions and agitations of it; and these are the four monarchies, Babylonian, Persian, Grecian, and Roman; compared to "beasts", because of the rapine and violence, cruelty, oppression, and tyranny, by which they were obtained, set up, supported, and maintained; and to "great ones", being not like single separate kingdoms, as the kingdom of Israel, and the like, but consisting of many kingdoms and nations, and so like beasts of an enormous size:

diverse one from another; in their situation, language, manner, strength, and power; hence expressed by divers sorts of beasts, as the lion, bear, leopard, &c.; as in Nebuchadnezzar's dream by different metals, gold, silver, brass, and iron.


Geneva Study Bible

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


Wesley's Notes

7:3 Four great beasts - That is, four great monarchies, great, in comparison of particular kingdoms; beasts for their tyrannical oppressions.


Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

3. beasts-not living animals, as the cherubic four in Re 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.


Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

7:1-8 This vision contains the same prophetic representations with Nebuchadnezzar's dream. The great sea agitated by the winds, represented the earth and the dwellers on it troubled by ambitious princes and conquerors. The four beasts signified the same four empires, as the four parts of Nebuchadnezzar's image. Mighty conquerors are but instruments of God's vengeance on a guilty world. The savage beast represents the hateful features of their characters. But the dominion given to each has a limit; their wrath shall be made to praise the Lord, and the remainder of it he will restrain.


Revelation 13:1 And the dragon stood on the shore of the sea. And I saw a beast coming out of the sea. He had ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on his horns, and on each head a blasphemous name.
Revelation 17:8 The beast, which you saw, once was, now is not, and will come up out of the Abyss and go to his destruction. The inhabitants of the earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the creation of the world will be astonished when they see the beast, because he once was, now is not, and yet will come.
Daniel 7:17 'The four great beasts are four kingdoms that will rise from the earth.
Zechariah 6:1 I looked up again--and there before me were four chariots coming out from between two mountains--mountains of bronze!

Animals Beasts Different Diverse Four Great Others Sea


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

four. Four kingdoms, (ver. 17) called [beasts] from their tyranny and oppression, emerging from the wars and commotions of the world.

2:32,33,37-40 Zec 6:1-8

beasts. 4-8,17 Ps 76:4 Eze 19:3-8 Re 13:1

Daniel Chapter 7 Verse 3

Alphabetical: And another beasts came coming different each Four from great of one others out sea the up were

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