Daniel 7:3

Contemporary English Version

when suddenly four powerful beasts came out of the sea. Each beast was different.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Four huge beasts came up from the sea, each different from the other.

Hebrew Names Version
Four great animals came up from the sea, diverse one from another.

King James Version
And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another.

English Standard Version
And four great beasts came up out of the sea, different from one another.

New American Standard Bible
"And four great beasts were coming up from the sea, different from one another.

New Century Version
I saw four huge animals come up from the sea, and each animal was different from the others.

Amplified Bible
"And four great beasts, each different from the other, were coming up out of the sea [in succession].

Geneva Bible (1587)
And foure great beastes came vp from the sea one diuers from another.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"And four great beasts were coming up from the sea, different from one another.

Berean Standard Bible
Then four great beasts came up out of the sea, each different from the others.

Complete Jewish Bible
and four huge animals came up out of the sea, each different from the others.

Darby Translation
And four great beasts came up from the sea, different one from another.

Easy-to-Read Version
I saw four big animals and each one was different from the others. These four animals came up out of the sea.

George Lamsa Translation
And four great beasts came up out of the sea, differing one from another.

Good News Translation
Four huge beasts came up out of the ocean, each one different from the others.

Lexham English Bible
And four great beasts were coming up from the sea, differing from one another.

Literal Translation
And four great beasts came up from the sea, different from one another.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
and foure greate beestes came vp from the see, one vnlike another.

American Standard Version
And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another.

Bible in Basic English
And four great beasts came up from the sea, different one from another.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another.

King James Version (1611)
And foure great beastes came vp from the sea, diuers one from another.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
And foure great beastes came vp from the sea, one diuers from an other.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And there came up four great beasts out of the sea, differing from one another.

English Revised Version
And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another.

World English Bible
Four great animals came up from the sea, diverse one from another.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And foure grete beestis dyuerse bitwixe hem silf stieden fro the see.

Update Bible Version
And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another.

Webster's Bible Translation
And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another.

New English Translation
Then four large beasts came up from the sea; they were different from one another.

New King James Version
And four great beasts came up from the sea, each different from the other.

New Living Translation
Then four huge beasts came up out of the water, each different from the others.

New Life Bible
And four large animals were coming up from the sea, different from one another.

New Revised Standard
and four great beasts came up out of the sea, different from one another.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
and four large wild beasts, coming up out of the sea, - diverse, one from another: -

Douay-Rheims Bible
And four great beasts, different one from another, came up out of the sea.

Revised Standard Version
And four great beasts came up out of the sea, different from one another.

Young's Literal Translation
and four great beasts are coming up from the sea, diverse one from another.

Contextual Overview

¹Daniel wrote: In the first year of King Belshazzar of Babylonia, I had some dreams and visions while I was asleep one night, and I wrote them down. The four winds were stirring up the mighty sea, ³ when suddenly four powerful beasts came out of the sea. Each beast was different. ⁴ The first was like a lion with the wings of an eagle. As I watched, its wings were pulled off. Then it was lifted to an upright position and made to stand on two feet, just like a human, and it was given a human mind. ⁵ The second beast looked like a bear standing on its hind legs. It held three ribs in its teeth, and it was told, "Attack! Eat all the flesh you want." ⁶ The third beast was like a leopard—except that it had four wings and four heads. It was given authority to rule. ⁷ The fourth beast was stronger and more terrifying than the others. Its huge teeth were made of iron, and what it didn't grind with its teeth, it smashed with its feet. It was different from the others, and it had horns on its head—ten of them. ⁸ Just as I was thinking about these horns, a smaller horn appeared, and three of the other horns were pulled up by the roots to make room for it. This horn had the eyes of a human and a mouth that spoke with great pride.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

four: Four kingdoms - Daniel 7:17, called beasts, from their tyranny and oppression, emerging from the wars and commotions of the world. Daniel 2:32, Daniel 2:33, Daniel 2:37-40, Zechariah 6:1-8

beasts: Daniel 7:4-8, Daniel 7:17, Psalms 76:4, Ezekiel 19:3-8, Revelation 13:1

Reciprocal: Jeremiah 49:36 - the four winds Daniel 2:31 - and the Zechariah 1:18 - four Revelation 21:1 - and there

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And four great beasts came up from the sea,.... Which are afterwards interpreted of four kings or kingdoms, Daniel 7:17, which rose up in the world, not at once, but successively, and out of the sea or world, through the commotions and agitations of it; and these are the four monarchies, Babylonian, Persian, Grecian, and Roman; compared to "beasts", because of the rapine and violence, cruelty, oppression, and tyranny, by which they were obtained, set up, supported, and maintained; and to "great ones", being not like single separate kingdoms, as the kingdom of Israel, and the like, but consisting of many kingdoms and nations, and so like beasts of an enormous size:

diverse one from another; in their situation, language, manner, strength, and power; hence expressed by divers sorts of beasts, as the lion, bear, leopard, c. as in Nebuchadnezzar's dream by different metals, gold, silver, brass, and iron.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And four great beasts came up from the sea - Not at once, but in succession. See the following verses. Their particular form is described in the subsequent verses. The design of mentioning them here, as coming up from, the sea, seems to have been to show that this succession of kingdoms sprang from the agitations and commotions among the nations represented by the heaving ocean. It is not uncommon for the prophets to make use of animals to represent or symbolize kingdoms and nations - usually by some animal which was in a manner peculiar to the land that was symbolized, or which abounded there. Thus in Isaiah 27:1, leviathan, or the dragon, or crocodile, is used to represent Babylon. See the note at that passage. In Ezekiel 29:3-5, the dragon or the crocodile of the Nile is put for Pharaoh; in Ezekiel 32:2, Pharaoh is compared to a young lion, and to a whale in the seas. In Psalms 74:13-14, the kingdom of Egypt is compared to the dragon and the leviathan.

So on ancient coins, animals are often used as emblems of kingdoms, as it may be added, the lion and the unicorn represent Great Britain now, and the eagle the United States. It is well remarked by Lengerke (in loc.), that when the prophets design to represent kingdoms that are made up of other kingdoms, or that are combined by being brought by conquest under the power of others, they do this, not by any single animal as actually found in nature, but by monsters - fabulous beings that are compounded of others, in which the peculiar qualities of different animals are brought together - as in the case of the lion with eagle’s wings. Thus in Revelation 13:1, the Romish power is represented by a beast coming out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, Compare it. Ezra (Apocry.) 11:1, where an eagle is represented as coming from the sea with twelve feathered wings and three heads. As an illustration of the attempts made in the apocryphal writings to imitate the prophets, the whole of chapter 11 and chapter 12 of the second book of Ezra may be referred to.

Diverse one from another - Though they all came up from the same abyss, yet they differed from each other - denoting, doubtless, that though the successive kingdoms referred to would all rise out of the nations represented by the agitated sea, yet that in important respects they would differ from each other.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Daniel 7:3. Four great beasts came up from the sea — The term sea, in Hebrew ים yam, from המה hamah, to be tumultuous, agitated, c., seems to be used here to point out the then known terraqueous globe, because of its generally agitated state and the four winds striving, point out those predatory wars that prevailed almost universally among men, from the days of Nimrod, the founder of the Assyrian or Babylonish monarchy, down to that time, and in the end gave birth to the four great monarchies which are the subject of this vision.

Diverse one from another. — The people were different; the laws and customs different; and the administration of each differently executed.