hotcoffee
New Member
Daniel 7:5 “And there before me was a second beast, which looked like a bear. It was raised up on one of its sides, and it had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. It was told, ‘Get up and eat your fill of flesh!’
Most of the commentaries don't have much to say about three out of four of the beasts. Maybe because they had already made their points in the spreadsheets comparing the four beasts to the statue. Maybe it's because they compare it to modern day Russia with no real factual reason for doing so. When comparing it to the statue, the bear would be the arms and chest of the statue. It comes after Nebuchadnezzar's kingdom.
While the lion was considered the king of the beasts, the bear is bigger than the lion. It's also mean and hungry. The kingdom built by the Medes and the Persians was much bigger than the one created by Nebuchadnezzar.
The commentary by Precept Austin says that the Medes and the Persians, being made up of a combination of two empires, had its problems. Either the Medes or the Persians were competing for the greater status. Makes sense, there are two arms on the statue. The bear shows this by being "raised up on one of its sides". I saw a picture of what "raised up on one of its sides" would mean. The picture shows the bear with one paw up.
The bear has three ribs in its mouth. All of the commentaries agree that the three ribs probably refer to three conquests of the Medo-Persian Empire [historically Lydia (546BC), Babylon (539BC) and Egypt (525BC)].
The commentaries also agree that the voice telling to beast to devour much flesh is heavenly. Most agree that it is ultimately commanded by God.
Precept Austin's commentary says this.
Arise devour much meat - The "bear-like" kingdom is issued two commands. While the speaker is not stated, we know that God is in some way behind the stirring up of these Gentile kingdoms. The Medo-Persian empire seems to have "obeyed" the commands to arise and devour for they extended their conquests (~ "devoured" much meat) until their borders reached from the Indus River on the east to Egypt and the Aegean Sea on the west, which constituted more territory under the control of the Medo-Persian empire than any empire had conquered to date.
At any rate, first we had a lion that had gained at least a heart for God in Nebuchadnezzar. Now we have a bear with a voracious appetite. While Babylon was growing, the Medo-Persian Empire was growing as well, conquering Babylon and moving on to conquer Egypt as well. It's said that when the Medo-Persian Empire went in to conquer Greece the size of the army was 2,500,000 troops. That's huge.
So a big hungry bear is a great description of the Medes and the Persians. It makes sense.
