Kingdoms interpreted

36This was the dream, and we will tell its interpretation before the king.

37You, O king, are the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the might, the power, and the glory.

38And wherever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the birds of the heavens—he has given them into your hand and made you ruler over all of them. You are the head of gold.

39And after you another kingdom, inferior to yours, will arise; and yet a third kingdom, of bronze, which will rule over all the earth.

40And the fourth kingdom will be strong like iron, because iron crushes and shatters everything; and like iron that breaks all these things, it will crush and shatter.

41And as you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, the kingdom will be divided; yet some of the firmness of iron will be in it, just as you saw the iron mixed with clay mud.

42And as the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly clay, so part of the kingdom will be strong, and part of it will be brittle.

43As you saw the iron mixed with clay, they will mix themselves with the seed of man, but they will not hold together, this one with that one, just as iron does not mix with pottery.

44And in the days of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, and the kingdom will not be left to another people. It will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, and it will stand forever.

45Just as you saw that a stone was cut from the mountain not by hands, and that it crushed the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold, the great God has made known to the king what will happen after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation is trustworthy.