37 You, O king, (A)the king of kings, to whom (B)the God of heaven (C)has given the kingdom, the power, and the might, and the glory, 38 and into whose hand he has given, wherever they dwell, the children of man, (D)the beasts of the field, and the birds of the heavens, making you rule over them all—you are (E)the head of gold. 39 (F)Another kingdom inferior to you shall arise after you, and yet a third kingdom (G)of bronze, (H)which shall rule over all the earth. 40 And (I)there shall be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron, because iron (J)breaks to pieces and shatters all things. And like iron that crushes, it shall (K)break and crush all these. 41 And as you saw (L)the feet and toes, partly of potter's clay and partly of iron, it shall be a divided kingdom, but some of the (M)firmness of iron shall be in it, just as you saw iron mixed with the soft clay. 42 And as the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly brittle. 43 As you saw the iron mixed with soft clay, so they will mix with one another in marriage,[a] but they will not hold together, just as iron does not mix with clay. 44 And in the days of those kings (N)the God of heaven will set up (O)a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. (P)It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and (Q)it shall stand forever,

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Footnotes

  1. Daniel 2:43 Aramaic by the seed of men

37 Your Majesty, you are the king of kings.(A) The God of heaven has given you dominion(B) and power and might and glory; 38 in your hands he has placed all mankind and the beasts of the field and the birds in the sky. Wherever they live, he has made you ruler over them all.(C) You are that head of gold.

39 “After you, another kingdom will arise, inferior to yours. Next, a third kingdom, one of bronze, will rule over the whole earth.(D) 40 Finally, there will be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron—for iron breaks and smashes everything—and as iron breaks things to pieces, so it will crush and break all the others.(E) 41 Just as you saw that the feet and toes were partly of baked clay and partly of iron, so this will be a divided kingdom; yet it will have some of the strength of iron in it, even as you saw iron mixed with clay. 42 As the toes were partly iron and partly clay, so this kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle. 43 And just as you saw the iron mixed with baked clay, so the people will be a mixture and will not remain united, any more than iron mixes with clay.

44 “In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush(F) all those kingdoms(G) and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever.(H)

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