How does Daniel's animal vision compare to Nebuchadnezzar's metal dream?
Daniel's animal vision parallels Nebuchadnezzar's metal dream, portraying the same unfolding of Gentile empires in different forms. Nebuchadnezzar saw gold, silver, and brass; Daniel saw a lion, bear, leopard, and an unexplainable beast identified as Rome, with ten horns after a long interval.
Les teaches that Daniel 7 shows the same unfolding of human history in Gentile empires as Nebuchadnezzar's dream, but in animal form rather than metals. Nebuchadnezzar dreamed of gold, silver, brass, and so forth; Daniel saw a lion, a bear, a leopard, and then a beast that could not be explained, which was the Roman Empire. Les points out that in verse 7, after the fourth beast is described as different from those before it, a semicolon represents about two thousand years in human reckoning, though in God's reckoning it is no longer than a semicolon. The ten horns are mentioned after that break.