Visions of the Four Beasts

7 In the first year of King Belshazzar of Babylon, Daniel had a dream and visions of his head as he lay in bed. Then he wrote down the dream:^{[a](A) 2} I,^[b] Daniel, saw in my vision by night the four winds of heaven stirring up the great sea, ³ and four great beasts came up out of the sea, different from one another.^{(B) 4} The first was like a lion and had eagles’ wings. Then, as I watched, its wings were plucked off, and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a human being, and a human mind was given to it.^{(C) 5} Another beast appeared, a second one, that looked like a bear. It was raised up on one side, had three tusks^[c] in its mouth among its teeth, and was told, “Arise, devour many bodies!” ⁶ After this, as I watched, another appeared, like a leopard. The beast had four wings of a bird on its back and four heads, and dominion was given to it.^(D)

³ So he carried me away in the spirit^[a] into a wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names, and it had seven heads and ten horns.^(A)