This is what he said: ‘The fourth beast is a fourth kingdom that will appear on the earth, different from all the other kingdoms, and it will devour the whole earth, trample it down, and crush it.
This reply of the angel is subject to the same obscurity as the vision itself, but it ought to be sufficient to calm the minds of the faithful to know that various changes should arise and shake the whole earth; for as many troubles were, prepared for the saints, so also they were braced up to fortitude and endurance.
The visions overwhelmed Daniel, troubling his spirit and exhausting him; yet he pressed toward understanding by asking the attending angel for the true meaning. We must likewise seek by faithful prayer and diligent search to grasp the full sense of what God reveals.
AI summary
Commenting on Daniel 7:15-28
Thus he said,.... The person that stood by, the angel, of whom Daniel made his inquiries, and who answered him, as follows: the fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom on earth; which shows that the angel, by four kings, Dan 7:17, meant four kingdoms, that should successively arise in the earth, and out of it, one after another; and this kingdom is not the...