Daniel's vision about four animals and a little horn
1 In the first year that King Belshazzar ruled Babylon, Daniel had a dream. He saw visions in his head while he lay on his bed. He wrote down what he saw in the dream.
7:1Belshazzar was the last Babylonian king. We read about his death in Daniel 5. 2 Daniel wrote, ‘I had a vision at night. I saw the four winds of the sky. They caused big waves in the great sea. 3 Then four large animals came out of the sea. They were all different from each other.
4 The first animal seemed like a lion, but it had the wings of an eagle. As I watched, someone pulled its wings off. They lifted it up and it stood on two feet like a man. They gave a man's mind to it.
5 Then I saw a second animal. It seemed like a bear. It raised itself up on one side and it had three ribs between its teeth. Someone said to it, “Stand up and eat the meat from many bodies.”
6 Then I saw another animal. It seemed like a leopard, but it had four wings on its back. They were like a bird's wings. This animal had four heads. It received authority to rule.
7 Then, while I looked, I saw a fourth animal in my vision. It was a terrible animal that was very strong. It had large iron teeth. It ate things and it broke them into pieces. It used its feet to stamp on everything else. It was different from the other animals. It had ten horns.
8 I was thinking about the horns and what they might mean. Then I saw another little horn that came up among the other ten horns. It pulled out three of those other horns to make room for itself. This little horn had eyes that looked like a man's eyes. It had a mouth that spoke proud words.
