Daniel 7 Introduction

Structure and Formatting

1. Narrative introduction: Daniel has a dream about four beasts (1) 2. Daniel describes his dream (2–15) 3. Daniel tells how a character in the dream explained its meaning to him (16–27) 4. Daniel concludes this account personally (28)Some translations set each line of poetry farther to the right than the rest of the text to make it easier to read. The ULT does this with the poetry in [7:9–10](../07/09.md) and [7:13–14](../07/13.md).

Translation issues in this chapter

Should translations try to identify what the beasts in this dream represent?

The character in the dream who explains its meaning to Daniel tells him, “These great beasts, which are four, are four kings arising from the earth” (7:17). Interpreters have certain understandings of what kingdoms these beasts represent, for example, that the lion represents the Babylonian Empire under Nebuchadnezzar, that the bear represents the empire of the Medes and Persians, and so forth. However, we recommend that you do not put anything in the text of your translation or even in a footnote tentatively identifying these kingdoms. Their identity is not certain, and moreover it is not the task of translators to interpret the text, only to represent what it says accurately in their own languages. We recommend similarly that you not offer interpretations of the symbols in chapters 8–12. See the discussion in the introduction to the book of Daniel, “The meaning of Daniel’s visions.”