31
"You, O king, were watching; and behold, a great image! This great image, whose splendor was excellent, stood before you; and its form was awesome.
32
This image's head was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze,
33
its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay.
34
You watched while a stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces.
35
Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed together, and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; the wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found. And the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.
36
"This is the dream. Now we will tell the interpretation of it before the king.
37
You, O king, are a king of kings. For the God of heaven has given you a kingdom, power, strength, and glory;
38
and wherever the children of men dwell, or the beasts of the field and the birds of the heaven, He has given them into your hand, and has made you ruler over them all--you are this head of gold.
39
But after you shall arise another kingdom inferior to yours; then another, a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth.
40
And the fourth kingdom shall be as strong as iron, inasmuch as iron breaks in pieces and shatters everything; and like iron that crushes, that kingdom will break in pieces and crush all the others.
41
Whereas you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter's clay and partly of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; yet the strength of the iron shall be in it, just as you saw the iron mixed with ceramic clay.