And four great beasts were coming up from the sea, different from one another.
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.
- BSB Then four great beasts came up out of the sea, each one different from the others:
- NKJV And four great beasts came up from the sea, each different from the other.
- 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 stood on the sand of the sea. I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads. On his horns were ten crowns, and on his heads, blasphemous names.
- Dan 7:17These great animals, which are four, are four kings, who shall arise out of the earth.
- Dan 2:32–33As for this image, its head was of fine gold, its breast and its arms of silver, its belly and its thighs of brass,
- Dan 7:4–8The first was like a lion, and had eagle’s wings: I saw until its wings were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made to stand on two feet as a man; and a man’s heart was given to it.
- Ezek 19:3–8She brought up one of her cubs. He became a young lion, and he learned to catch the prey. He devoured men.
- Zech 6:1–8Again I lifted up my eyes, and saw, and behold, four chariots came out from between two mountains; and the mountains were mountains of brass.
- Ps 76:4Glorious are you, and excellent, more than mountains of game.
- Dan 2:37–40You, O king, are king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, and the strength, and the 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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