Daniel 7:4 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Daniel 7:4. The first was like a lion— This is the kingdom of the Babylonians; and the king of Babylon is in like manner compared to a lion, Jeremiah 5:6 and said to fly as an eagle, Jeremiah 48:40. He is also compared to an eagle, Ezekiel 3:7. The lion is esteemed the king of beasts, and the eagle the king of birds; and therefore the kingdom of Babylon, which is described as the first and noblest kingdom, and was the greatest then in being, is said to partake of the nature of both. Instead of a lion, the Vulgate, Greek, and Arabic, read a lioness; and St. Jerome observes, that the kingdom of Babylon, for its cruelty, is compared not to a lion, but to a lioness; which, naturalists assert, is the fiercer of the two. The eagle's wings denote its swiftness and rapidity: and the conquests of Babylon were very rapid; that empire being advanced to its height within a few years by a single person, by the conduct and arms of Nebuchadnezzar. It is farther said, that the wings thereof were plucked, &c. that is to say, it was taken away from the earth, as it is commonly understood, and as it is rendered in almost all the ancient versions: or it may be translated, The wings thereof were plucked, wherewith it was lifted up from the earth; as Grotius explains it, and as we read in the margin of our Bibles; the conjunction copulative sometimes supplying the place of a relative. Its wings were beginning to be plucked at the time of the delivery of this prophesy; for at this time the Medes and Persians were incroaching upon it. Belshazzar the king, now reigning, was the last of his race; and in the seventeenth year of his reign Babylon was taken, and the kingdom transferred to the Medes and Persians. It is not easy to say what is the precise meaning of the last clause, And made stand, &c. It is most probable, that after the Babylonian empire was subverted, the people became humane and gentle; their minds were humbled with their fortunes; and they who vaunted as if they had been gods, now felt themselves to be but men. They were brought to such a sense as the inspired writer wishes, Psalms 9:20. See Bishop Newton as above. Houbigant reads, And it stood upon its feet, as a man; that is, says he, before its wings were plucked; for the pride of Nebuchadnezzar is here marked out, who seemed in his own opinion to be above a man; like an animal desirous to advance itself to the human condition.