“He changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding.” — Daniel 2:21
The four kingdoms of Daniel are four successive world empires which, according to the Book of Daniel, rise and fall before the end of the age and the coming of the Kingdom of God.
Revealed through dream and vision — a colossal image of four metals, four beasts ascending from the sea — they declare the sovereignty of God over every earthly dominion and the establishment of a kingdom not made by human hands.
The Four Kingdoms
The Book of Daniel originated from a collection of legends circulating in the Jewish community in Babylon and Mesopotamia during the Persian and early Hellenistic periods (fifth to third centuries BC), and was later expanded by the visions of chapters 7–12 in the Maccabean era (mid-second century BC).
The theme of the four kingdoms appears explicitly in Daniel 2 and Daniel 7, and is implicit in the imagery of Daniel 8. Daniel's pattern of four successive world empires is drawn from Greek theories of mythological history, while the symbolism of the four metals of the statue in chapter 2 is drawn from Persian writings. The four beasts from the sea in chapter 7 reflect the word of the Lord through Hosea, in which God declares that he will come against Israel as lion, leopard, bear, and wild beast:
“So I am to them like a lion; like a leopard I will lurk beside the way. I will fall upon them like a bear robbed of her cubs; I will tear open their breast, and there I will devour them like a lion, as a wild beast would rip them open.” — Hosea 13:7–8
The consensus among scholars is that the four beasts of chapter 7, like the four metals of chapter 2, symbolize Babylon, Media, Persia, and the Seleucid Greeks, with Antiochus IV as the little horn that uproots three others — Antiochus having usurped the rights of several rival claimants to become king.
Daniel 2 — The Great Image
In chapter 2, Nebuchadnezzar dreams of a great statue made of four materials, and Daniel interprets its parts as four kingdoms:
- Head of gold — explicitly identified as King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon (vv. 37–38).
- Chest and arms of silver — an inferior kingdom to follow Nebuchadnezzar (v. 39).
- Belly and thighs of bronze — a third kingdom, which shall rule over all the earth (v. 39).
- Legs of iron, feet of mingled iron and clay — a fourth kingdom, strong as iron, yet divided: the feet and toes, partly of clay and partly of iron, show it shall not hold together (vv. 41–43).
“You, O king, the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, and the might, and the glory… you are the head of gold. Another kingdom inferior to you shall arise after you, and yet a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth. And there shall be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron, because iron breaks to pieces and shatters all things. And like iron that crushes, it shall break and crush all these.” — Daniel 2:37–40
“And as you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter's clay and partly of iron, it shall be a divided kingdom, but some of the firmness of iron shall be in it, just as you saw iron mixed with the soft clay.” — Daniel 2:41
Yet the dream does not end with the kingdoms of men. A stone cut by no human hand strikes the image and grinds it to chaff, and the stone becomes a great mountain that fills the whole earth:
“As you looked, a stone was cut out by no human hand, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold, all together were broken in pieces, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, so that not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.” — Daniel 2:34–35
“And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever, just as you saw that a stone was cut from a mountain by no human hand, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold.” — Daniel 2:44–45
Daniel 7 — The Four Beasts from the Sea
In chapter 7, Daniel sees in a night vision four great beasts coming up out of the sea, and is told that they are four kingdoms:
- A lion with eagle's wings (v. 4).
- A bear, raised up on one side, with three ribs in its mouth between its teeth (v. 5).
- A leopard with four wings of a bird and four heads (v. 6).
- A fourth beast, terrifying and dreadful, with great iron teeth and ten horns (vv. 7–8).
“And four great beasts came up out of the sea, different from one another. The first was like a lion and had eagles' wings. Then as I looked its wings were plucked off, and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a man, and the mind of a man was given to it. And behold, another beast, a second one, like a bear. It was raised up on one side. It had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth; and it was told, ‘Arise, devour much flesh.’ After this I looked, and behold, another, like a leopard, with four wings of a bird on its back. And the beast had four heads, and dominion was given to it.” — Daniel 7:3–6
“After this I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, terrifying and dreadful and exceedingly strong. It had great iron teeth; it devoured and broke in pieces and stamped what was left with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns.” — Daniel 7:7
The fourth beast is explained as a fourth kingdom, different from all the other kingdoms, which shall devour the whole earth, trample it down, and break it to pieces (v. 23). The ten horns are ten kings who shall arise from this kingdom, and after them arises another horn — the little horn — who puts down three of them: a king yet to come (v. 24).
“As for the ten horns, out of this kingdom ten kings shall arise, and another shall arise after them; he shall be different from the former ones, and shall put down three kings.” — Daniel 7:24
Over against the beasts stands the heavenly court, and the vision turns from bestial empire to the Son of Man, to whom is given an everlasting dominion:
“I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.” — Daniel 7:13–14
“These four great beasts are four kings who shall arise out of the earth. But the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, forever and ever.” — Daniel 7:17–18
Daniel 8 — The Ram and the Goat
In chapter 8, Daniel sees a ram with two horns destroyed by a he-goat with a single great horn between its eyes. The great horn is broken, four horns arise in its place, and from them comes forth once again the little horn. The angel Gabriel interprets the vision: the ram is the kings of Media and Persia, the goat is the king of Greece, and the great horn is its first king.
“As for the ram that you saw with the two horns, these are the kings of Media and Persia. And the goat is the king of Greece. And the great horn between his eyes is the first king.” — Daniel 8:20–21
Interpretations
Rashi, the medieval rabbi, interpreted the four kingdoms as Nebuchadnezzar (“you are the head of gold”), Belshazzar (“another kingdom lower than you”), Alexander of Macedon (“a third kingdom of copper”), and the Roman Empire (“and in the days of these kings”). The fifth kingdom that God will establish, Rashi explains, is the kingdom of the Messiah.
A traditional view shared by Jewish and Christian historicists, futurists, dispensationalists, partial preterists, and other futuristic Jewish and Christian interpreters, as well as certain Messianic Jews, identifies the kingdoms of Daniel (with variations) as:
- the Babylonian Empire
- the Medo-Persian Empire
- the Greek Empire
- the Roman Empire — with further implications yet to come
Daniel and Revelation
Christian interpreters have always read the Book of Daniel together with the New Testament's Book of Revelation. The beast that rises from the sea in Revelation 13 is a composite of Daniel's four — the leopard, the bear, the lion, the ten horns — and the Church Fathers interpreted this beast as the empire of Rome:
“And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, with ten diadems on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads. And the beast that I saw was like a leopard; its feet were like a bear's, and its mouth was like a lion's mouth. And to it the dragon gave his power and his throne and great authority.” — Revelation 13:1–2
The majority of modern scholarly commentators likewise understand the city on seven hills in Revelation as a reference to Rome:
“This calls for a mind with wisdom: the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated.” — Revelation 17:9
In 1617, sculptures representing the four kingdoms of Daniel were placed above the doors of Nuremberg town hall:
The Book of Daniel and the Kingdoms of the World
Themes:
- exile;
- empire;
- dreams;
- interpretation;
- beasts;
- heavenly court;
- Son of Man;
- kingdom not made by human power;
- apocalyptic chronology.
Daniel gives a direct opposition between: beastly empire and divinely ordered kingdom.
Library of Light Edition 1.0 — Last revised: September 2026