Bible Strands
Daniel 7:8
While I was contemplating the horns, suddenly another horn, a little one, came up among them, and three of the first horns were uprooted before it. This horn had eyes like those of a man and a mouth that spoke words of arrogance.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Daniel narrates a night vision to his readers, positioned between the appearance of a fourth beast with ten horns and the subsequent throne room scene of the Ancient of Days.
The words — מִשְׂתַּכֵּל (mishta'kal) = contemplating and זְעֵירָה (ze'irah) = small. The text places the narrator in active observation as a minor horn rises among the ten, displacing three others and displaying human-like eyes and an arrogant mouth.
The thread — The speaking mouth appears in Revelation 13:5, where a beast receives authority to utter blasphemous words for forty-two months. The ten-horned beast motif reappears in Revelation 13:1, while the text's depiction of boastful speech parallels the condemnation in Psalms 12:3.
Why it lands — The passage demands recognition that sudden, arrogant authority often emerges from within established structures without warning. It requires the reader to track prophetic sequences objectively, noting how pride precedes divine judgment without softening the description.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things.
Cross-references
- Revelation 13:5 The beast was given a mouth to speak arrogant and blasphemous words, and authority to act for 42 months.
- Revelation 13:1 Then I saw a beast with ten horns and seven heads rising out of the sea. There were ten royal crowns on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads.
- Psalms 12:3 May the LORD cut off all flattering lips and every boastful tongue.
- Daniel 8:9 From one of these horns a little horn emerged and grew extensively toward the south and the east and toward the Beautiful Land.
- Daniel 11:36 Then the king will do as he pleases and will exalt and magnify himself above every god, and he will speak monstrous things against the God of gods. He will be successful until the time of wrath is completed, for what has been decreed must be accomplished.
- 2 Thessalonians 2:4 He will oppose and exalt himself above every so-called god or object of worship. So he will seat himself in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.
- Revelation 9:7 And the locusts looked like horses prepared for battle, with something like crowns of gold on their heads; and their faces were like the faces of men.
- Revelation 13:11 Then I saw another beast rising out of the earth. This beast had two horns like a lamb, but spoke like a dragon.
- 1 Samuel 2:3 Do not boast so proudly, or let arrogance come from your mouth, for the LORD is a God who knows, and by Him actions are weighed.
- Daniel 7:20 I also wanted to know about the ten horns on its head and the other horn that came up, before which three of them fell—the horn whose appearance was more imposing than the others, with eyes and with a mouth that spoke words of arrogance.