Daniel 2:36-45

New International Version

³⁶“This was the dream, and now we will interpret it to the king.^(A) ³⁷Your Majesty, you are the king of kings.^(B) The God of heaven has given you dominion^(C) and power and might and glory; ³⁸in 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.^(D) 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.^(E) ⁴⁰Finally, 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.^(F) ⁴¹Just 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. ⁴²As the toes were partly iron and partly clay, so this kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle. ⁴³And 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^(G) all those kingdoms^(H) and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever.^(I) ⁴⁵This is the meaning of the vision of the rock^(J) cut out of a mountain, but not by human hands^(K)—a rock that broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold to pieces.

“The great God has shown the king what will take place in the future.^(L) The dream is true^(M) and its interpretation is trustworthy.”

Read full chapter

Daniel 4:19-26

New International Version

Daniel Interprets the Dream

¹⁹Then Daniel (also called Belteshazzar) was greatly perplexed for a time, and his thoughts terrified^(A) him. So the king said, “Belteshazzar, do not let the dream or its meaning alarm you.”^(B)

Belteshazzar answered, “My lord, if only the dream applied to your enemies and its meaning to your adversaries! ²⁰The tree you saw, which grew large and strong, with its top touching the sky, visible to the whole earth, ²¹with beautiful leaves and abundant fruit, providing food for all, giving shelter to the wild animals, and having nesting places in its branches for the birds^(C)— ²²Your Majesty, you are that tree!^(D) You have become great and strong; your greatness has grown until it reaches the sky, and your dominion extends to distant parts of the earth.^(E)

²³“Your Majesty saw a holy one,^(F) a messenger, coming down from heaven and saying, ‘Cut down the tree and destroy it, but leave the stump, bound with iron and bronze, in the grass of the field, while its roots remain in the ground. Let him be drenched with the dew of heaven; let him live with the wild animals, until seven times pass by for him.’^(G)

²⁴“This is the interpretation, Your Majesty, and this is the decree^(H) the Most High has issued against my lord the king: ²⁵You will be driven away from people and will live with the wild animals; you will eat grass like the ox and be drenched^(I) with the dew of heaven. Seven times will pass by for you until you acknowledge that the Most High^(J) is sovereign over all kingdoms on earth and gives them to anyone he wishes.^(K) ²⁶The command to leave the stump of the tree with its roots^(L) means that your kingdom will be restored to you when you acknowledge that Heaven rules.^(M)