Daniel Interprets the Dream
31 "You saw, O king, and behold, a great image. This image, mighty and of exceeding brightness, stood before you, and its appearance was frightening.
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1The head of this image was of fine gold,
2its chest and arms of silver, its middle and
3thighs of bronze,
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4its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay.
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As you looked, a stone was cut out
5by no human hand, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and
6broke them in pieces.
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Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold, all together were broken in pieces, and became
7like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, so that
8not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the image became
9a great mountain
10and filled the whole earth.
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"This was the dream. Now we will tell the king its interpretation.
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You, O king,
11the king of kings, to whom
12the God of heaven
13has given the kingdom, the power, and the might, and the glory,
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and into whose hand he has given, wherever they dwell, the children of man,
14the beasts of the field, and the birds of the heavens, making you rule over them all--you are
15the head of gold.
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16Another kingdom inferior to you shall arise after you, and yet a third kingdom
17of bronze,
18which shall rule over all the earth.
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And
19there shall be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron, because iron
20breaks to pieces and shatters all things. And like iron that crushes, it shall
21break and crush all these.
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And as you saw
22the feet and toes, partly of potter's clay and partly of iron, it shall be a divided kingdom, but some of the
23firmness of iron shall be in it, just as you saw iron mixed with the soft clay.
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And as the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly brittle.
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As you saw the iron mixed with soft clay, so they will mix with one another in marriage, but they will not hold together, just as iron does not mix with clay.
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And in the days of those kings
24the God of heaven will set up
25a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people.
26It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and
27it shall stand forever,
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just as
28you saw that
29a stone was cut from a mountain by no human hand, and that
30it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold. A
31great God has made known to the king what shall be after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation sure."