Albert Barnes Commentary Daniel 7:2

"Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of heaven brake forth upon the great sea." — Daniel 7:2 (ASV)

Daniel spoke and said - That is, he spoke and said in the manner intimated in the previous verse. It was by a record made at the time, and thus he might be said to speak to his own generation and to all future times.

I saw in my vision by night - I beheld in the vision; that is, he saw represented to him the scene which he proceeds to describe. He seemed to see the sea in a tempest, and these monsters come up from it, and the strange succession of events which followed.

And behold, the four winds of the heaven - The winds that blow under the heaven, or that seem to come from the heaven—or the air. Compare (Jeremiah 49:36). The number of the winds is here referred to as four, as they are now, blowing mainly from the four quarters of the earth. Nothing is more common now than to designate them in this manner—as the east, the south, the west, and the north wind. So the Latins: Eurus, Auster, Zephyrus, Boreas.

Strove - מגיחן megı̂ychân. Burst, or rushed forth; seemed to conflict together. The winds burst, rushed from all quarters, and seemed to meet on the sea, throwing it into wild commotion. The Hebrew word (גיח gı̂yach) means to break or burst forth, as a fountain or stream of waters (Job 40:23); an infant breaking forth from the womb (Job 38:8); a warrior rushing forth to battle (Ezekiel 32:2). Hence, the Chaldean word means to break forth; to rush forth as the winds. The symbol here would naturally denote some wild commotion among the nations, as if the winds of heaven should rush together in confusion.

Upon the great sea - This expression would properly apply to any great sea or ocean, but it is probable that the one that would occur to Daniel would be the Mediterranean Sea, as that was best known to him and his contemporaries. A heaving ocean—or an ocean tossed with storms—would be a natural emblem to denote a nation, or nations, agitated with internal conflicts, or nations in the midst of revolutions. Among the sacred poets and the prophets, hosts of armies invading a land are compared to overflowing waters, and mighty changes among the nations to the heaving billows of the ocean in a storm. Compare (Jeremiah 46:7–8; Jeremiah 47:2; Isaiah 8:7–8; Isaiah 17:12; Isaiah 59:19; Daniel 11:40; Revelation 13:1).

The classic reader will be reminded in the description here of the words of Virgil, Aeneid 1.82 and following:

“Ac venti, velut agmine facto
Qua data porta ruunt, et terras turbine perflant.
Incubuere mari, totumque a sedibus imis
Una Eurusque, Notusque ruunt, creberque procellis
Africus, et vastos volvunt ad littora fluctus.”

Compare also Ovid, Tristia 1.2.25 and following.

It was from this agitated sea that the beasts Daniel saw, representing successive kingdoms, seemed to rise. The fair interpretation of this part of the symbol is that there were, or would be, as it appeared to Daniel in the vision, commotions among the nations resembling the sea driven by storms. From these commotions, successive kingdoms would arise, having the characteristics specified by the appearance of the four beasts.

In the fulfillment of this, we naturally look to some state of affairs in which the nations were agitated and convulsed, struggling against each other as the winds strove upon the sea—a state of affairs that preceded the rise of these four successive kingdoms. Without now pretending to determine whether that was the time denoted by this, it is certain that all that is said here would find a counterpart in the period immediately preceding the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, or the kingdom which he founded and adorned.

His rapid and extensive conquests, the agitation of the nations in self-defense, and their wars against one another would be well denoted by the agitation of the ocean as seen by Daniel in the vision. It is true that this image could apply to many other periods in world history. However, no one can doubt its applicability to this particular period. This applicability would be sufficient if the design was to represent a series of kingdoms commencing with that of Nebuchadnezzar.