⁷ “‘I happened to be beholding in my visions during the night, and, see there! the four winds of the heavens were stirring up the vast sea. And four huge beasts were coming up out of the sea, each one being different from the others. “The first one was like a lion, and it had the wings of an eagle. I kept on beholding until its wings were plucked out, and it was lifted up from the earth and was made to stand up on two feet just like a man, and there was given to it the heart of a man. “And, see there! another beast, a second one, it being like a bear. And on one side it was raised up, and there were three ribs in its mouth between its teeth; and this is what they were saying to it, “Get up, eat much flesh.” After this I kept on beholding, and, see there! another beast, one like a leopard, but it had four wings of a flying creature on its back. And the beast had four heads, and there was given to it rulership indeed.’”​—Daniel 7:1-6.

8. What did those three beasts symbolize, for how long?

⁸ Those three huge beasts out of the windswept sea pictured three rulerships. They pictured the same rulerships as represented in the gold head, the silver breasts and arms, the copper belly and thighs of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream image, namely, the Babylonian World Power, the Medo-Persian World Power and the Grecian World Power.

9. What fourth beast with horns did Daniel see in this vision?

⁹ At this point, however, Daniel is not finished with telling us his prophetic dream. He adds: “After this I kept on beholding in the visions of the night, and, see there! a fourth beast, fearsome and terrible and unusually strong. And it had teeth of iron, big ones. It was devouring and crushing, and what was left it was treading down with its feet. And it was something different from all the other beasts that were prior to it, and it had ten horns. I kept on considering the horns, and, look! another horn, a small one, came up in among them, and there were three of the first horns that were plucked up from before it. And, look! there were eyes like the eyes of a man in this horn, and there was a mouth speaking grandiose things.”​—Daniel 7:7, 8.

10. This beast corresponds with what in the dream “image”?

¹⁰ Here we have what corresponds with the iron legs of the world-power “image” seen in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. The fourth beast represented more than just the Roman Empire or Sixth World Power of Bible prophecy.