232 A.E. Gardner eagle. Further the bear had ˆy[l[ between its teeth. This word is cognate with “suck up” (w[l[y) in Job. ˆy[l[ in Dan 7,5 then as a nominal form should be translated as “ones who suck up” or “suckers”. Job 39,30 also says of the eagle “where the slain (µyllj) are, there is it”. This links with Jer 51,49, “... at Babylon shall fall the slain (yllj) of all the land”. That the “bear” is told to devour much flesh should be understood in the context of Babylon being likened to a sacrifice in Jer 51,40. There Yahweh says, “I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with he- goats”. None of the above passages however throw any light on why there were three suckers or why the word “flesh” (rçb) was included in the instruction to the bear. 1 Sam 2,13-14 provides the answer: when any man offered sacrifice, the servant 13 of the priest came while the flesh (rçb) was seething and the fleshhook with three teeth (µynçh çlç) was in his hand. And he struck it into the pot ... 14 and all the fleshook took up (hl[y) (60) the priest took for himself... As was seen in Dan Jer 51,40 Babylon was to be “slaughtered”. Now her “flesh” (rçb of Dan 7,5) (61) is ready to be drawn up by the fleshhook with three teeth. Interestingly glzm (fleshhook) has the basic meaning of “to draw up”, thus linking with the Aramaic ˆy[l[, adduced to derive from the verbal form w[l[y which appears in Job, but is hapax legomena there. That the bear was told to “arise” (ymwq) is probably an allusion to Jer 51,1 where God says, in the context of the coming destruction of Babylon, “I will raise (ymq) a destroying wind (jwr)”. jwr here calls to mind the four winds (yjwr) of heaven which broke forth on the great sea causing the beasts to come up or arise. (Dan 7,2-3). More importantly though jwr is defined in Jer 51,11 in terms which relate to the second beast: Yahweh has established the spirit (jwr) of the kings of Media because his device is against Babylon to destroy it ... * ** The Biblical prophecies of the downfall of Babylon are behind the activity of the second beast, although these have been supplemented from Job and elsewhere. Hos 13,7-8 is likely to have been the primary impetus behind the choice of the “bear” to represent the Medes and Persians who were (60) This passage suggests that the aramaic root [l[ should be understood as related to the hebrew hl[ ‘go up’. (61) The last stanza of Dan 7,5 “Arise, devour much flesh” (aygç rçb ylka ymwq) has caused problems for commentators, mainly because they have adduced the three ˆy[l[ which were in the mouth, between the teeth of the bear, to be the remnants of foodstuffs. However the reference to “flesh” has been explained by 1 Sam 2,13-14 which contains rçb and by the realisation that Babylon is pictured as a sacrifice.