Daniel 2:31-45

31“You looked, O king, and behold, there before you stood a huge statue—an enormous and dazzling image, whose appearance was awesome.

32The head of that statue was of pure gold, its breast and its arms of silver, its belly and its thighs of bronze,

33its legs of iron, and its feet partly iron and partly clay.

34While you were watching, a stone was cut out, but not by hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashed them.

35Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were crushed together, and became like chaff from summer threshing-floors that the wind blows away. Not a trace of them could be found. Then the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.

36“This was the dream. Now we will tell the king its interpretation.

37You, O king, are the king of kings to whom the God of heaven has given sovereignty, power, might and glory.

38Wherever mankind, beasts of the field, and fowls of the heaven dwell, He has given them into your hand, and made you ruler over them all. You are the head of gold.

39“Now after you another kingdom will arise, one inferior to yours. Next, a third kingdom, one of bronze, will rule over all the earth.

40Finally, there will be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron—for iron shatters and breaks everything—and just as iron smashes everything, so will it shatter and crush all the others.

41Just as you saw that the feet and toes were partly potter’s clay and partly iron, so this will be a divided kingdom. It will have some of the strength of the iron, for you saw the iron mixed with clay.

42As the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly clay, so this kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle.

43Just as you saw iron mixed with clay, people will mix with one another, but they will not adhere to one another, just as iron does not mix with clay.

44“Now in the days of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will this kingdom be left to another people. It will crush and bring to an end all of these kingdoms. But it will endure forever.

45For just as you saw a stone cut out of a mountain, yet not by hands, crush the iron, bronze, clay, silver and gold, the great God has made known to the king what will happen in the future. Now the dream is certain, and its interpretation is trustworthy.”