Daniel 7:2

"In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream and visions of his head while on his bed. Then he wrote the dream and told the sum of the matters."

Key Reflection

Daniel 7:2 sets the stage for one of the most significant prophetic visions in the book of Daniel. This verse informs us that this vision occurred during the first year of Belshazzar's reign, a time when Babylon was still powerful but its fall was imminent. The fact that Daniel had both "dreams and visions" while lying on his bed indicates that these experiences were profound and possibly supernatural, setting the scene for the symbolic imagery that follows in verses 3 and beyond. This context helps us understand the urgency and importance of what is about to unfold, as it pertains directly to the end times and the rise of future world empires.

From the Scholars: Barnes' Notes

Daniel spake and said -That is, he spake and said in the manner intimated in the previous verse. It was by a record made at the time, and thus he might be said to speak to his own generation and to all future times. I saw in my vision by night -I beheld in the vision; that is, he saw represented to him the scene which he proceeds to describe. He seemed to see the sea in a tempest, and these monsters come up from it, and the strange succession of events which followed. And behold, the four winds of the heaven -The winds that blow under the heaven, or that seem to come from the heaven - or the air. CompareJeremiah 49:36.

Related Verses

More from Daniel 7

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