Then four great beasts came up out of the sea, each one different from the others:
Parallel translations
- WEB Four great animals came up from the sea, diverse one from another.
- KJV And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another.
- NKJV And four great beasts came up from the sea, each different from the other.
- NASB And four great beasts were coming up from the sea, different from one another.
- NLT Then four huge beasts came up out of the water, each different from the others.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Four great beasts, each different, rise from the sea. They represent a succession of world empires.
Overview
From the agitated sea emerge four distinct beasts, widely understood to symbolize successive kingdoms, paralleling the statue of Daniel 2. Their beastly nature portrays the often brutal character of human empire apart from God. The vision frames history as a sequence of rising and falling powers leading toward God's final kingdom.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Rev 13:1Then I saw a beast with ten horns and seven heads rising out of the sea. There were ten royal crowns on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads.
- Dan 7:17‘These four great beasts are four kings who will arise from the earth.
- Dan 2:32–33The head of the statue was pure gold, its chest and arms were silver, its belly and thighs were bronze,
- Dan 7:4–8The first beast was like a lion, and it had the wings of an eagle. I watched until its wings were torn off and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a man, and given the mind of a man.
- Ezek 19:3–8She brought up one of her cubs, and he became a young lion. After learning to tear his prey, he devoured men.
- Zech 6:1–8And again I lifted up my eyes and saw four chariots coming out from between two mountains—mountains of bronze.
- Ps 76:4You are resplendent with light, more majestic than mountains filled with game.
- Dan 2:37–40You, O king, are the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given sovereignty, power, strength, and glory.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Daniel sees the stone cut without hands that shatters the kingdoms, and 'one like a son of man' given everlasting dominion — titles and visions Jesus claims as his own.
How Daniel 7:3 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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