Daniel 4:12

4:12 Its foliage was attractive and its fruit plentiful;

on it there was food enough for all.

Under it the wild animals ¹  used to seek shade,

and in its branches the birds of the sky used to nest.

All creatures ²  used to feed themselves from it.

Daniel 7:4

7:4 “The first one was like a lion with eagles’ wings. As I watched, its wings were pulled off and it was lifted up from the ground. It was made to stand on two feet like a human being, and a human mind ³  was given to it. ⁴ 

[4:12]  ¹ tn Aram “the beasts of the field.”

[4:12]  ² tn Aram “all flesh.”

[7:4]  ³ tn Aram “heart of a man.”

[7:4]  ⁴ sn The identity of the first animal, derived from v. 17 and the parallels in chap. 2, is Babylon. The reference to the plucking of its wings is probably a reference to the time of Nebuchadnezzar’s insanity (cf. chap. 4). The latter part of v. 4 then describes the restoration of Nebuchadnezzar. The other animals have traditionally been understood to represent respectively Media-Persia, Greece, and Rome, although most of modern scholarship identifies them as Media, Persia, and Greece. For a biblical parallel to the mention of lion, bear, and leopard together, see Hos 13:7-8.