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.^{[a](A) 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^[b] 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,^(B) and this kingdom will not be left to another people. It will crush all these kingdoms^(C) and bring them to an end, but will itself endure forever.

²³ “This is what he said: ‘The fourth beast will be a fourth kingdom on the earth, different from all the other kingdoms. It will devour the whole earth, trample it down, and crush it.

⁷ And he was permitted to wage war against the saints and to conquer them. He was also given authority over every tribe, people, language, and nation.^{(A) 8} All those who live on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name was not written from the foundation of the world in the book^[a] of life^(B) of the Lamb who was slaughtered.^[b](C)