“The first was like a lion, and had eagle's wings: I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man, and a man's heart was given to it.” Dan. 7:4.
Note.—The lion, the first of these four great beasts, like the golden head of Nebuchadnezzar's dream, represents the Babylonian monarchy; the lion, the king of beasts, standing at the head of his kind, as gold does of metals. The eagle's wings doubtless denote the rapidity with which Babylon extended its conquests under Nebuchadnezzar, who reigned from b.c. 604 to b.c. 561. This kingdom was overthrown by the Medes and Persians in b.c. 538.
10. By what was the second kingdom symbolized?
“And behold another beast, a second, like to a bear, and it raised up itself on one side, and it had three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of it: and they said thus unto it, Arise, devour much flesh.” Verse 5.
Note.—“This was the Medo-Persian Empire, represented here under the symbol of a bear.... The Medes and Persians are compared to a bear on account of their cruelty and thirst after blood, a bear being a most voracious and cruel animal.”—Adam Clarke, on Dan. 7:5.
11. By what was the third universal empire symbolized?
“After this I beheld, and lo another, like a leopard, which [pg 216] had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl; the beast had also four heads; and dominion was given to it.” Verse 6.
Notes.—If the wings of an eagle on the back of a lion denoted rapidity of movement in the Babylonian, or Assyrian, Empire (see Hab. 1:6-8), four wings on the leopard must denote unparalleled celerity of movement in the Grecian Empire. This we find to be historically true.
“The rapidity of Alexander's conquests in Asia was marvelous: he burst like a torrent on the expiring Persian Empire, and all opposition was useless. The gigantic armies collected to oppose him melted like snow in the sunshine. The battles of Granicus, b.c. 334, Issus in the following year, and Arbela in b.c. 331, settled the fate of the Persian Empire, and established the wide dominion of the Greeks.”—“The Divine Program of the World's History,” by H. Grattan Guinness, page 308.
“The beast had also four heads.” The Grecian Empire maintained its unity but a short time after the death of Alexander, which occurred in b.c. 323. Within twenty-two years after the close of his brilliant career, or by b.c. 301, the empire was divided among his four leading generals. Cassander took Macedonia and Greece in the west; Lysimachus had Thrace and the parts of Asia on the Hellespont and Bosporus in the north; Ptolemy received Egypt, Lydia, Arabia, Palestine, and Cœle-Syria in the south; and Seleucus had all the rest of Alexander's dominions in the east.