And behold another beast, a second, like to a {d} bear, and it raised up itself on {e} one side, and it had three ribs in the {f} mouth of it between the teeth of it: {g} and they said thus unto it, Arise, devour much flesh.

(d) Meaning the Persians who were barbarous and cruel.

(e) They were small in the beginning, and were shut up in the mountains, and had no strength.

(f) That is, destroyed many kingdoms and whose hunger could not be satisfied.

(g) That is, the angels by God's commandment, who by this means punished the ingratitude of the world.

Wesley's Notes

7:5 Another beast - The Mede's and Persians, a fierce, ravenous creature. On one side - The north side; for the Mede first arose and sent to Cyrus the Persian to come and assist him against the Assyrian. Three ribs - Several of the Babylonian subjects revolted, and all these made the three ribs.

King James Translators' Notes

it raised...: or, it raised up one dominion

Scofield Reference Notes

Margin three ribs

A reference to the three-fold dominion of the second empire, Media, Persia, Babylonia.

Margin devour

i.e. Lydia, Babylonia, Egypt, etc.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

5. bear-symbolizing the austere life of the Persians in their mountains, also their cruelty (Isa 13:17, 18; Cambyses, Ochus, and other of the Persian princes were notoriously cruel; the Persian laws involved, for one man's offense, the whole kindred and neighborhood in destruction, Da 6:24) and rapacity. "A bear is an all-devouring animal" [Aristotle, 8.5], (Jer 51:48, 56).

raised . itself on one side-but the Hebrew, "It raised up one dominion." The Medes, an ancient people, and the Persians, a modern tribe, formed one united sovereignty in contrast to the third and fourth kingdoms, each originally one, afterwards divided. English Version is the result of a slight change of a Hebrew letter. The idea then would be, "It lay on one of its fore feet, and stood on the other"; a figure still to be seen on one of the stones of Babylon [Munter, The Religion of Babylonia, 112]; denoting a kingdom that had been at rest, but is now rousing itself for conquest. Media is the lower side, passiveness; Persia, the upper, active element [Auberlen]. The three ribs in its mouth are Media, Lydia, and Babylon, brought under the Persian sway. Rather, Babylon, Lydia, and Egypt, not properly parts of its body, but seized by Medo-Persia [Sir Isaac Newton]. Called "ribs" because they strengthened the Medo-Persian empire. "Between its teeth," as being much grinded by it.

devour much flesh-that is, subjugate many nations.

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.