book of the prophet Daniel. Daniel said to Nebuchadnezzar, in your vision, O King, you saw a statue, very large and exceedingly bright, terrifying an appearance as it stood before you. The head of the statue was pure gold. Its chest and arms were silver,

its belly and thighs bronze, the legs iron, its feet partly iron and partly tile.

While you looked at the statue, a stone which was ewned from a mountain, without a hand being put to it,

struck its iron and tile feet, breaking them in pieces.

The iron, tile, bronze, silver, and gold all crumbled at once, fine as the chaff on the threshing floor in summer,

and the wind blew them away without leaving a trace.

But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.

This was the dream, the interpretation we shall also give in the king's presence.

You, O king, are the king of kings, to you the God of heaven, has given dominion and strength, power and glory.

Men, wild beasts, and birds of the air, wherever they may dwell, he has handed over to you, making

you ruler over them all. You are the head of gold. Another kingdom shall take your place,

inferior to yours, then a third kingdom of bronze,

which shall rule over the whole earth.

There shall be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron.

It shall break in pieces and subdue all the others,

just as iron breaks in pieces and crushes everything else.

The feet and toes you saw, partly of the potter's tile and partly of iron,

mean that it shall be a divided kingdom, but yet have some of the hardness of iron.

As you saw the iron mixed with clay tile and the toes partly iron and partly tile, the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile.

The iron mixed with the clay tile means that they shall seal their alliances by inner marriage, but they shall not stay united any more than iron mixes with clay.

In the lifetime of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed

or deliver it up to another people. Rather, it shall break in pieces, all these kingdoms and put an end to them, and it shall stand forever.

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