Symbols in Daniel
Symbol
Clarifying Text
What the Symbol Means
Metals in Daniel 2—gold,
silver, brass, iron
Daniel 2:38-40
Four successive world empires
beginning in Daniel’s day
Head of gold in Daniel 2:38
Daniel 2:31-32
Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom—
Babylon
Toes of image in Daniel 2:41
Daniel 2:41
A divided kingdom
The rock cut out without
hands in Daniel 2:34
Daniel 2:44, 45
God’s eternal kingdom
The tree in Daniel 4:10
Daniel 4:20-22
King Nebuchadnezzar
The cutting down of the tree
in Daniel 4:14
Daniel 4:24, 25
King Nebuchadnezzar’s loss of his
throne to temporary insanity
The band of iron and brass
around the tree’s stump in
Daniel 4:15
Daniel 4:26
Nebuchadnezzar’s empire
preserved
The mysterious writing on
the wall of Belshazzar’s
banquet hall in Daniel 5:5
Daniel 5:26-28
God’s judgment pronounced upon
Babylon
Four winds in Daniel 7:2
(See also Revelation
7:1, 2)
symbolizes the directions of the
West.
Sea in Daniel 7:2
Revelation 17:15
Multitudes, peoples, nations
Beasts in Daniel 7:3
Daniel 7:17, 23
Empires or kingdoms
The lion, bear, leopard, and
dragon-like beast in Daniel
7:3-8
Daniel 7:4-7
Four successive world empires of
Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and
Rome
Ten horns in Daniel 7:7-8
Daniel 7:24 (first part)
Ten kings or kingdoms—divisions of
power
Little horn in Daniel 7:8
part)
that is not political, but religious in
nature
Eyes like a man in Daniel
7:8
wisdom. Eyes like a man indicate a
system based on human, rather
than divine, wisdom
Clouds of heaven in Daniel
7:13
Revelation 1:7
