It was wise king Solomon who wrote:

"I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts. For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity. All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again. Who knoweth the spirit of a man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?"—Ecclesiastes 3:18-21.

Physically, men are animals. Sometimes they demonstrate that they are more than just physical beasts—they think and behave like beasts too! It is the Psalmist that teaches us that: "Man that is in honour, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish" (Psalm 49:12 and 20). The difference then, is in understanding. Some men, high in the world’s honour and esteem, sitting upon lofty thrones and crowned with royal splendour, understand not—they are "like the beasts that perish". This is because, as the Apostle explains, "...the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned" (1 Cor. 2:14).

Men who are ignorant of God’s truth and of God’s ways are of no more consequence than a magnificent beast. For this reason the Bible frequently depicts nations and empires in the likeness of beasts. But it is when man is politically organized that he becomes the most ferocious beast imaginable, "dreadful and terrible"—Daniel 7:7.