Daniel 2:24-45

24Thereupon, Daniel went to Arioch, whom the king had appointed to kill the wise men of Babylon; he went and said this to him: “1Do not kill the wise men of Babylon! Take me 2into the king’s presence, and I will declare the interpretation to the king.”

25Then Arioch hurriedly 3brought Daniel 4into the king’s presence and spoke to him as follows: “I have found a man among the 56exiles from Judah who can make the interpretation known to the king!” 26The king said to Daniel, whose name was 7Belteshazzar, “Are you able to make known to me the dream which I have seen and its interpretation?” 27Daniel answered before the king and said, “As for the secret about which the king has inquired, neither 8wise men, sorcerers, soothsayer priests, nor diviners are able to declare it to the king. 28However, there is a 9God in heaven who reveals secrets, and He has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will take place in the 1011latter days. This was your dream and the 12visions 13in your mind while on your bed. 29As for you, O king, while on your bed your thoughts 14turned to what would take place 15in the future; and 16He who reveals secrets has made known to you what will take place. 30But as for me, this secret has not been revealed to me 17for any 18wisdom 19residing in me more than in any other living person, but for the purpose of making the interpretation known to the king, and that you may understand the 20thoughts of your 21mind.

31“You, O king, were watching and behold, there was a single great statue; that statue, which was large and 22of extraordinary radiance, was standing in front of you, and its appearance was 2324awesome. 32The 25head of that statue was made of fine gold, its chest and its arms of silver, its belly and its thighs of bronze, 33its legs of iron, and its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. 34You 26continued watching until a 27stone was broken off 28without hands, and it struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay, and 29crushed them. 35Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed to pieces 30all at the same time, and they were 31like chaff from the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away so that 32not a trace of them was found. But the stone that struck the statue became a great 33mountain and filled the entire earth.

36“This was the dream; and now we will tell 34its interpretation before the king. 37You, O king, are the 35king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the 36kingdom, the 37power, the strength, and the honor; 38and wherever the sons of mankind live, or the 38animals of the field, or the birds of the sky, He has handed them over to you and has made you ruler over them all. You are the head of gold. 39And after you another kingdom will arise inferior to you, then another third kingdom of bronze, which will rule over all the earth. 40Then there will be a 39fourth kingdom as strong as iron; just as iron smashes and crushes everything, so, like iron that crushes, it will smash and crush all these things. 41And in that you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, it will be a divided kingdom; but it will have within it some of the toughness of iron, since you saw the iron mixed with 40common clay. 42And just as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of pottery, so some of the kingdom will be strong, and part of it will be fragile. 43In that you saw the iron mixed with 41common clay, they will combine with one another 42in 43their descendants; but they will not adhere to one another, just as iron does not combine with pottery. 44And in the days of those kings the 44God of heaven will 45set up a 46kingdom which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be 47left for another people; it will 48crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever. 45Just as you saw that a 49stone was broken off from the mountain without hands, and that it crushed the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold, the 50great God has made known to the king what 51will take place 52in the future; so the dream is certain and its interpretation is trustworthy.”