Daniel 7
PATDaniel’s vision concerning the four beasts, which an angel interprets of the four great monarchies, that were to con-’ tinue successively unto the end of the world. rolls and records belonging to courts of judicature. (Compare Deut. xxxii. 24. Psal. lvi. 8. Isa. lxv. G. Mai. iii. 1G.)
Daniel 7:1
AN the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream. The prophet having related some remarkable passages concerning himself and his brethreu in captivity, and given proofs of his skill in interpreting other men’s dreams, proceeds to give an account of his own visions: and thereupon goes back to the first year of Belshazzars reign, which was seventeen years before the history contained in the last chapter.
Daniel 7:2
Behold, the four great winds of heaven strove upon the great sea.~. Denoting those commotions of the world, and that troublesome state of affairs, out of which empires and kingdoms commonly take their rise.
Daniel 7:3
And four great beasts came up from the sea. They took their riso from wars and commotions, which end in setting up the conqueror to be a great monarch over those whom he hath subdued. (Compare Rev. xiii. I.) The reason why these monarchies are represented by fierce" and savage beasts, had been observed in the note upon ii. 31.
Daniel 7:4
The first teas like a lion, and had eagle’s wings. Warriors, especially conquerors, are compared to lions for their strength and cruelty, and to eagles for their swiftness. (See Deut. xxviii. 49, 2 Sam. i. 23. Jer. iv. 7. xlviii. 40. Habak. i. 8.) vhcrosoft ® CHAP. VII.] J beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth.] Or rather, Wherewith it was lifted up from the earth; as the margin reads, the conjunction copulative sometimes supplying the place of a relative. (See Noldius, p. 296.) There was a stop put to the progress of its victories, by the frequent irruptions of the armies led by Cyrus and Darius, or Cyaxares, against the Babylonians, for twenty years together, before the final overthrow of that empire. See Dr. Prideaux’s Script. Connex. from the first year of Neriglissar’s reign, and so onwards. And made stand upon the feet as a man, &c] It became more tame and tractable.
Daniel 7:5
And behold another beast, a second, like to a bear, and it raised up itself on one side. This beast denotes the Persian empire, and its first beginning to advance itself and arrive at dominion. The margin reads, And it raised up one dominion; i.e. it made up one empire out of the joint powers of Media and Persia. And it had three ribs in the mouth of it.] The learned Bishop of Coventry and Litchfield, in the Vindication of his Defence of Christianity, vol. i. chap. 2. sect. 3. explains these three ribs to be Babylon, Lydia, and Egypt. It is certain that Lydia was conquered by Cyrus, from the famous story of Crcesus, the king thereof, whom he condemned to the fire: and as Egypt had been conquered by Nebuchadnezzar, (see Ezek. xxix. 19.) so it still continued tributary to Cyrus under the government of Amasis. (Sec the additional notes upon Ezek. xxix. 13. and ^Xenoph. Cyropaed. lib. vii. viii.) And they said thus unto her, Arise, and devour much flesh.] Their success made them still more greedy of dominion.
Daniel 7:6
After this I beheld, audio another, like a leopard, which had on the back of it four wings like a fowl: the beast had also four heads. This third beast denotes the Grecian empire, begun by Alexander, and continued in his four successors. (See viii. 8. 22.) The four wings signify the swiftness of its progress and victories. (Soever. 5. of that chapter.) A leopard is a creature of extraordinary swiftness, and jumps upon its prey, as naturalists observe. And dominion was given to it.] By the swiftness of Alexander’s progress, and the victories he obtained by small forces, it appeared that Providence gave him the empire of the world.
Daniel 7:7
Behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly. And for that reason compared to iron, ii. 40. This must mean the Roman empire, as hath been fully proved in the note upon that place. It subdued and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it.] It subdued all the nations who had, been subjects of the former empires. The latter part of the sentence alludes to the furyof the wild beasts, who stamp upon that part of their prey which they cannot devour. (Compare viii. 7. 10.) So those conquests which the Romans could not make use of themselves, they gave for a prey and a spoil to their allies. And it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns.] In this it was dificrent from all the beasts or empires before it; that its dominion was to be divided into ten kingdoms or principalities, signified here by ten horns, and by the ten toes of the image, ii. 41. (See ver. 23, 24. of this chapter, and the notes there.) UPON DANIEL.
Daniel 7:8
There came up among them another little horn, before whom were three of the first horns plucked up, &c. / See ver. 24, 25. In this horn were eyes like the eyes of man.] Denoting great cunning and foresight. A mouth speaking great things.] See the note upon ver. 25.
Daniel 7:9
I beheld till the thrones were cast down. Or rather, pitched down, or placed. So the Greek interpreter understands it, and the verb in the text is used in the same sense in the Chaldee paraphrase upon Jer. i. 15. where our translation reads, They shall set every one his throne! The following words, And the Ancient of days did sit, justifythis translation. The thrones here mentioned import, first of all, the thrones of God and Christ; (see ver. 13, 14.) and then those of the saints, who shall be assessors with God and Christ at the day of judgment. (See ver. 22. and Rev. xx. 4.) The fourth monarchy being to continue till the consummation of all things, the general judgment is described in this and the following verses, wherein sentence was to pass up6n this fourth beast, and an end put to its dominion. And the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was as white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool.] The eternal Judge of the world, (see Rev. xvi. 5.) he that was from the beginning, (1 John ii. 14.) who is elsewhere* described covering himself with light as with a garment,* (Psal. civ. 2.) and as a clear and unspotted brightness,, (1 John i. 5.) In this Divine representation there is mention made of the hair of the head, as there is in that vouchsafed to Moses* and the elders of Israel of the feet, Exod. xxiv. 10. yet* we are not to suppose that in either place any determinate* shape or figure like that of a man was represented. (See* Deut. iv. 15.) The expressions only import that both the * upper and the lower part of this Divine Schechinah was of * an amazing inexpressible brightness.’ * His throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as a " burning fire.] God is described as coming to judgment in* flames of fire, whereby the world and the wicked that are* therein shall be destroyed. (See Psal. 1. 3. 1 Cor. iii.15.’ 2Thess. i.7,8. 2 Pet. iii. 7. 10.) His throne is here de-; scribed in the nature of a triumphal chariot, supported by’ angels, as so many fiery wheels. (See Psal. lxviii. 17. civ. 3,4. Ezek. i. 13—15.)
Daniel 7:10
A fiery stream issued and came forth before him. Lightnings and streams of fire were his harbingers, to give notice of his speedy approach. (Compare Psal. 1. 3.’ xcvii. 3.) *>. « Thousand thousands minister to him f &c] His retinue was" an innumerable company of angels. (See Deut. xxxiii. 2. " Psal. lxviii. 17. Heb. xii. 22. Rev. v. 11.) The judgment was set.] The court, God as the supreme judge, and the saints as his assessors, made their public’ appearance. (See ver. 9.) The expression alludes to the seats in the Jewish consistories, where the abbithdin, or * president of the court, had his assistants sitting with him; ** or, as some think, to the ancient custom among the Jews for the princes, or heads of the tribes, to sit with the king in the courts of justice. And. the books were opened.] The books both of God’s laws and men’s actions. The phrase is an allusion to the vol. iv.
Daniel 7:11
Because of the great words tvhich the horn did speak. See ver. 25. I beheld, even till the beast was slain.] The prophet hero relates what was the final destruction of this fourth and last beast, and of that little horn belonging to it, and coming up after the rest of the horns, (ver. 24.) And his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame.] See Rev. xviii. 8. xix. 20.
Daniel 7:12
As concerning the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away: yet their lives were prolonged for a season and time. As to the three first monarchies, though the succeeding monarchy took away the dominion of that which went before, yet it was not done all at once, but by degrees: and the nations where those monarchies were seated, still had a being, though they changed their masters. Whereas the destruction of the last monarchy implied the putting an end to that empire, and to all other earthly governments: the kingdom of Christ being then immediately to take place. (See ver. 13, 14. and ii. 34.)
Daniel 7:13
Behold, one like the Son of man came in the clouds of heaven. One in the shape and likeness of a man; but clothed with such ensigns of majesty, as shewed him to be an extraordinary person: (see the note upon Ezek. ii. 1. compare Rev. i. 13. xiv. 14.) indeed, no less than tho Messias, as the description of him that follows doth declare. The two foregoing verses having explained why the fourth beast was destroyed, this part of the vision declares by whom it was done, represents Christ in his judicial capacity, and describes him by that title he often gives himself, the Son of man, in allusion to this placo: particularly he alludes to this text, Matt. xxvi. G4. where he speaks of his, coming in the clouds of heaven, by which expression he acknowledged himself to be the Messias here described; and gave a direct answer to the question there proposed to him, Art thou the Christ the Son of the Blessed? (Compare Mark xiv. 61, G2. Rev. i. 7.) Whereupon they condemned him as guilty of blasphemy. A learned prelate, in his Defeneo of Christianity from the ancient Prophecies, p. 131. observes, that Anani, the clouds, was a known name of the Messias among the Jewish writers, which shews that they understood this text as spoken of him. And came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him.] To signify that Christ received his kingdom from his Father. (See Matt. xi. 27. xxviii. 18. John iii. 35. 1 Cor. xv. 27. Eph. i. 21. Philip, ii. 9, 10. Rev. v; 7. compare Jer. xxx. 21.)
Daniel 7:14
And there was given him dominion and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him. Upon the destruction of antichrist, the little horn of the fourth beast, the stone which Nebuchadnezzar saw in his first vision, was to become a great mountain; (ii. 35.) and then all the ancient prophecies are to be accomplished, which speak of the uninterrupted glory and universality of Christ’s kingdom: (see Psal. ii. 7, 8. viii. G. ex. 1. Isa. ii. 2 — 4.) and the universality of Christ’s, dominion will be illustriously displayed at the day of judg-, ment, when all the world shall be summoned to appear before him. (See Rom. xiv. 10 — 12.) His dominion is an everlasting dominion, &c] See ver. 27.
Daniel 7:15
I f)aniel was grieved in my spirit. Tho terrible appearance of this vision made an extraordinary impression upon my spirits. (Seo ver. £8. viii. 27. x. 8.) In the midst of my body.] The original reads, In the midst of my sheath: a metaphor used by several heathen writers, who call the body the sheath of the soul. (See Pliny’s Nat. Hist. lib. vii.chap. 52. and Seneca, epist. 92.) Ver. 1G. I came near to one of them that stood by.] To one of the angels, who always attended upon the throne of God and Christ: (ver. 9, 10.) several angels are represented as attending upon Daniel’s visions. (See viii. 13. 16. x. 5, 6. 1G. xii. 5, 6.)
Daniel 7:17
These great beasts, tvhich are four ) are four kings. Four kingdoms, or monarchies: so the word king is used for kingdom, Isa. xxiii. 15. (See the note there.) Which shall arise out of the earth.] Shall be of the earth, earthy, and have nothing of a heavenly spirit in them: whereas the kingdom of Christ is a heavenly kingdom, which the saints shall possess, as it follows.
Daniel 7:18
But the saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom, &c. TJiose earthly kingdoms being taken away, or destroyed, as the Greek adds by way of explication, the succeeding kingdom shall be that of Christ and his saints. (See ver. 22.) Instead of the Most High, the margin reads high ones, from the Chaldee: sometimes the one true God is spoken of in the plural number, by way of eminence: see Josh. xxiv. 19. Eccles. v. 8. where it is in the Hebrew — He is holy Gods. Ver. §0. Whose look ivas more stout than his fellows.] Or, His appearance wasmore excellent than his fellows. Though he was little at first, yet he afterward claimed a superiority above the other horns or principalities.
Daniel 7:21
J beheld, and the same, horn made war with the saints. So antichrist is described as making war with the saints, and overcoming them for a time. (See Rev. xi. 7. 9. xiii. 7. xvii. 14.)
Daniel 7:22
Until the Ancient of days came.~. Came to judgment,, ver. 9. And judgment was given to the saints of the Most High.] They were to sit in judgment with God and Christ. (Sec the note upon ver. 9.) And the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom.] The saints are described as reigning with Christ in his kingdom: 2 Tim. ii. 11. Rev. ii. 26, 27. iii. 21. xx. 4.
Daniel 7:23
And the fourth beast — shall be diverse from all kingdoms. As being managed under different forms of government: having the form of a commonwealth at tho beginning of its greatness, and afterward governed by kings and emperors; and in process of time, being divided into ten kingdoms or principalities; and all of them under the direction of one. spiritual head. (See Revxvii. 13. and compare ver. 7. of this chapter.)
Daniel 7:24
And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise. A hom is an emblem of strength, so itcomes to signify power and authority: (see Deut. xxxiiL 17. Psal. Ixxxix. 17.) and from thence it. is applied to denote sovereignty or dominion. (See viii. 21, 22; Rev. xvii. 12.) These ten horns or kingdoms arose out of the dissolution of the Roman empire, which came to pass about the year of Christ 476. And it was divided into the following principalities or kingdoms, according to Mr. Mede: (see his Works, p. 661.) 1. Britons. 2. Saxons. 3. Franks. <D CHAP. YII.] UPON DANIEL. 4. Burgundians. 5. Wisigotbs. G. Suevians and Alans. 7\ Vandals. 8. Almons. 9. Ostrogoths; succeeded by the Lbngobards, first in Pannonia, and then in Italy. 10. Greeks. The late learned Bishop Lloyd hath given the following list of the ten kingdoms which arose out of the dissolution of the Roman empire, and the time of their rise. 1. Hunns, erected their kingdom in that part of Pannoniaand Dacia, which from them was called Hungary, about A. D. 356. 2. Ostrogoths settled themselves in the countries that reach from Rhetia to Maesia, even to Thrace, about 377. and afterward came into Italy under Alaricus in 410. 3. AVisigoths Settled in the south parts of France, and in Catalonia, about 378. 4. Franks seized upon part of Germany and Gaul, 410. 5. Vandals settled in Spain, afterward set up their kingdom in Africa, 407. Their king Gensericus sacked Rome, 455. 6. Suevians and Alans seized the western parts of Spain, 407. and invaded Italy, 457. 7. Burgundians came out of Germany into that part of Gaul, called from them Burgundy, 407. 8. Herules, Rugians, and Thoringians, settled in Italy, under Doacer, about 476. 9. Saxons made themselves masters of Great Britain about the same time, 476. 10. Longobards, called likewise Gopidae, settled in Germany about Magdeburg, 383, and afterward succeeded the Heruli and Thuringi in Hungary, about the year 826. And another shall arise after them.’] The papacy took its rise from the same cause, but did not arrive at direct supremacy till the year 606, when pope Boniface usurped the title of Universal Bishop. Mr. Mede translates the words, Another shall arise behind them; i. e. in an unperceived manner, so as the other kings were not aware of his growing greatness till he overtopped them. And he shall be diverse from the rest.] His authority will be ecclesiastical, yet so as to lay claim to temporal power too, and to assert a right of disposing of secular affairs. And he shall subdue three kings.] Or, kingdoms, see ver. 17. Mr. Mede (p. 778, 779.) explains these three kingdoms to be, 1. The exarchate of Ravenna, which Charles the Great recovered from the Lombards, and gave to the pope. 2. The kingdoms of the Greeks in Italy, of which the emperor Leo Isaurus was deprived by the popes Gregory the Second and Third: and, 3. The kingdom of the Franks, or German emperors: from whom the popes wrested the election and investiture of themselves and other bishops, and by degrees took from them all the jurisdiction they had in Italy: which was the occasion of grievous wars fot several ages, between the popes and the emperor Henry IV. and his successors. Sec a brief account of those encroachments of the popes, and the disturbances which followed upon them, in Bishop Stillingflcet’s Disc, of the Idolatry of the Church of Rome, &c. chap. 5.
Daniel 7:25
And he shall speak great words against the Most High. Sec ver. 8. 20. xi. 36. St. John plainly alludes to this text, Rev. xiii. 5, 6. where the beast is said to open his mouth in blasphemy against God: this he did by advancing his own authority above that of God’s, and in derogation to his laws: (compare 2 Thcss.ii. 4.) as also by setting up the worship of images, and other idolatrous practices, which the prophet Isaiah calls reproaching txnd blaspheming God, Isa. lxv. 7. And shall wear out the saints of the Most High.] By raising wars and persecutions against them. (Se6 ver. 21. Rev. xvii. 6. xviiK24.) And shall think to change times and laws.] To alter governments and their constitutions. (Compare ii. 21. 1 Ghron. xxix. 30.) This the papacy hath done by claiming a power to depose kings, sind set up others in their stead: and not only to abrogate human laws, but likewise to dispense with Divine ones. And they were given into his hand (or power, sec Rev. xiii. 7.) until a time and times and the dividing of time.] Or half a time, as the Hebrew expresseth it, xii. 7. from whence the expressions arc taken by St: John, Rev. xii. 14. i. e. for three years and a half Of prophetical time. (See the note upon iv. 16.) The same space of tinie is expressed in other places of the Revelation by two-and-forty mo7iths, and by twelve hundred and threescore days, xi. 2, 3. These times of antichrist some learned men think to be typically represented in the persecution which Antiochus Epiphanes raised against the Jewish church, and his interdict of the public worship in the temple, which Josephus reckons to have lasted three years and a half; (Bell. Jud. lib. i. cap. 1. n. 3.) although, computing from the time that the idol altar was set up, that desolation continued but three years precisely: as appears from 1 Mace. i. 54. compared with iv. 52. (See Archbishop Usher’s Annals, par. ii. p. 23. and Dr. Prideaux’s Script. Connex. par. ii. adA.C. 165. 168.)
Daniel 7:26
But the judgment shall sit, (see ver. 22.) and shall take away his dominion. This being the last of the four earthly kingdoms or monarchies, when that is destroyed, there will be an end of the present state of things, when all human rule, authority, and power, shall cease, (1 Cor. xv. 24.) and the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ, Rev. xi. 15.
Daniel 7:27
And the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, &c. This denotes the reign of Christ on earth, where the saints are described as reigning with hinf. (See ver. 18. 22. compared with Rev. v. 10. xx. 4.)
Daniel 7:28
As for me, Daniel, my cogitations much troubled me. The extraordinary circumstances of the vision made a great impression upon my mind, (see ver. 15.) arid it was matter of great trouble to me to foresee the profanation of God’s laws and worship, tod’tbe persecutionsand calamities which should come upon his diurch and people. And niy countenance changed in me.] The impressions this vision made upon tiac, weakened my Spirits, and altered my complexion, as if I had a fit of sickness. (Sec viii. 18.27.) But I kept the matter in my heart.] I frequently meditated upon it: (compare Luke ii. 19.) and by that means was enabled to give an exact account of th£ vision arid its interpretation in writing, for the use and benefit of afterages. (See ver. 1.)