Daniel 2:31-45

Holman Christian Standard Bible

The Dream’s Interpretation

³¹ “My king, as you were watching, a colossal statue appeared. That statue, tall and dazzling, was standing in front of you, and its appearance was terrifying. ³² The head of the statue was pure gold, its chest and arms were silver, its stomach and thighs were bronze, ³³ its legs were iron, and its feet were partly iron and partly fired clay. ³⁴ As you were watching, a stone broke off without a hand touching it,^[a](A) struck the statue^(B) on its feet of iron and fired clay, and crushed them.^{(C) 35} Then the iron, the fired clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were shattered and became like chaff^(D) from the summer threshing floors. The wind carried them away, and not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled^(E) the whole earth.

³⁶ “This was the dream; now we will tell the king its interpretation. ³⁷ Your Majesty, you are king of kings.^(F) The God of heaven has given you sovereignty, power,^(G) strength, and glory. ³⁸ Wherever people live—or wild animals, or birds of the air—He has handed them over to you and made you ruler over them all.^(H) You are the head of gold.

³⁹ “After you, there will arise another kingdom, inferior to yours, and then another, a third kingdom, of bronze, which will rule the whole earth.^{(I) 40} A fourth kingdom will be as strong as iron; for iron crushes and shatters everything, and like iron that smashes, it will crush and smash all the others.^{[b](J) 41} You saw the feet and toes, partly of a potter’s fired clay and partly of iron—it will be a divided kingdom, though some of the strength of iron will be in it. You saw the iron mixed with clay, ⁴² and that the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly fired clay—part of the kingdom will be strong, and part will be brittle. ⁴³ You saw the iron mixed with clay—the peoples will mix with one another^[c] but will not hold together, just as iron does not mix with fired clay.

⁴⁴ “In the days of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed,^(K) and this kingdom will not be left to another people. It will crush all these kingdoms^(L) and bring them to an end, but will itself endure forever. ⁴⁵ You saw a stone^(M) break off from the mountain without a hand touching it,^[d](N) and it crushed the iron, bronze, fired clay, silver, and gold. The great God has told the king what will happen in the future.^[e](O) The dream is true, and its interpretation certain.”