14 He was given authority, ( AG) glory and sovereign power all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. ( AF) He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. ( AC) 12 (The other beasts had been stripped of their authority, but were allowed to live for a period of time.)ġ3 “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, ( AD) coming ( AE) with the clouds of heaven. ( AB) I kept looking until the beast was slain and its body destroyed and thrown into the blazing fire. Ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him.ġ1 “Then I continued to watch because of the boastful words the horn was speaking. The hair of his head was white like wool. ( S)Īnd the Ancient of Days ( T) took his seat. This horn had eyes like the eyes of a human being ( R) and a mouth that spoke boastfully. ( P)Ĩ “While I was thinking about the horns, there before me was another horn, a little ( Q) one, which came up among them and three of the first horns were uprooted before it. ( O) It was different from all the former beasts, and it had ten horns. It had large iron ( M) teeth it crushed and devoured its victims and trampled ( N) underfoot whatever was left. This beast had four heads, and it was given authority to rule.ħ “After that, in my vision ( L) at night I looked, and there before me was a fourth beast-terrifying and frightening and very powerful. ( K) And on its back it had four wings like those of a bird. It was told, ‘Get up and eat your fill of flesh!’ ( J)Ħ “After that, I looked, and there before me was another beast, one that looked like a leopard. It was raised up on one of its sides, and it had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. ( I) I watched until its wings were torn off and it was lifted from the ground so that it stood on two feet like a human being, and the mind of a human was given to it.ĥ “And there before me was a second beast, which looked like a bear. 3 Four great beasts, ( G) each different from the others, came up out of the sea.Ĥ “The first was like a lion, ( H) and it had the wings of an eagle. ( D) He wrote ( E) down the substance of his dream.Ģ Daniel said: “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me were the four winds of heaven ( F) churning up the great sea. They present Daniel as a colorful and dramatic hero unique in biblical literature-an enduring symbol of hope and salvation for all men and women of faith who must suffer for their beliefs.7 In the first year of Belshazzar ( A) king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream, and visions ( B) passed through his mind ( C) as he was lying in bed. Di Lella have revealed the profound religious and human dimensions of the Daniel stories. The Book of Daniel also includes the famous incident of "the handwriting on the wall" and recounts the four vivid dream-visions or apocalypses which, through symbols and signs, offered interpretations of history and predictions of future deliverance. The inspiring stories in which Daniel and his companions Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego survive the ordeals of the lions' den and the fiery furnace dramatize for believers of all time the ultimate test of faith-the willingness to risk one's life for one's beliefs. who had to endure religious, economic, and social oppression at the hands of Antiochus I. The Book of Daniel was written as resistance literature, to strengthen and console loyal Jews of the second century B.C. Di Lella, Professor of Old Testament, and the late Louis F. This volume on the Book of Daniel has been prepared by two distinguished biblical scholars from the faculty of the Catholic University of America: Alexander A. The Anchor Bible series offers new, book-by-book translations of the Old and New Testament and the Apocrypha, with commentary.
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