Daniel 2:31-45

The King's Dream

31 "You, O king, were looking and behold, there was a single great statue; that statue, which was large and of extraordinary splendor, was standing in front of you, and its appearance was ¹awesome.

32 "The ²head of that statue was made of fine gold, its breast and its arms of silver, its belly and its thighs of bronze,

33 its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay.

34 "You continued looking until * a ³stone was cut out ⁴without hands, and it struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and ⁵crushed them.

35 "Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were crushed all at the same time and became ⁶like chaff from the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away so that ⁷not a trace of them was found. But the stone that struck the statue became a great ⁸mountain and filled the whole earth.

The Interpretation--Babylon the First Kingdom

36 "This was the dream; now we will tell ⁹its interpretation before the king.

37 "You, O king, are the ¹⁰king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the ¹¹power, the strength and the glory;

38 and wherever * the sons of men dwell, or the ¹²beasts of the field, or the birds of the sky, He has given them into your hand and has caused you to rule over them all. You are the head of gold.

Medo-Persia and Greece

39 "After you there will arise another kingdom inferior to you, then another third kingdom of bronze, which will rule over all the earth.

Rome

40 "Then there will be a ¹³fourth kingdom as strong as iron; inasmuch * * as iron crushes and shatters all things, so, like iron that breaks in pieces, it will crush and break all these in pieces.

41 "In that you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter's clay and partly of iron, it will be a divided kingdom; but it will have in it the toughness of iron, inasmuch * * as you saw the iron mixed with common clay.

42 "As the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of pottery, so some * of the kingdom will be strong and part of it will be brittle.

43 "And in that you saw the iron mixed with common clay, they will combine with one another in the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one * another *, even as iron does not combine with pottery.

The Divine Kingdom

44 "In the days of those kings the ¹⁴God of heaven will ¹⁵set up a ¹⁶kingdom which will never * be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for another people; it will ¹⁷crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever.

45 "Inasmuch * * as you saw that a ¹⁸stone was cut out of the mountain without hands and that it crushed the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold, the ¹⁹great God has made known to the king what ²⁰will take place in the future; so the dream is true and its interpretation is trustworthy."

Daniel 2:31-45 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO DANIAL 2

The subject of this chapter is a dream which Nebuchadnezzar had dreamed, but had forgot; upon which he calls his magicians and astrologers together, to tell him it, and the interpretation of it; threatening them with death if they did not, and promising them great rewards and honour if they did, Da 2:1-6, they urge the unreasonableness of the demand, and the impossibility of the thing; which so highly incensed the king, that he ordered their immediate destruction, Da 2:7-13, Daniel and his companions being in danger, he goes in to the king, and desires time, and he would show him what he had dreamed; which being granted, he spent it in prayer to God, Da 2:14-18, and the thing being revealed to him, he gave thanks to God, Da 2:19-23, and being introduced to the king, he both told him his dream, and the interpretation of it; which concerned the four monarchies of the world, and the everlasting kingdom of the Messiah, Da 2:24-45, upon which he was highly honoured, and greatly promoted by the king, Da 2:46-49.

Cross References

• 1. Habakkuk 1:7
• 2. Daniel 2:38
• 3. Daniel 2:45
• 4. Daniel 8:25; Zechariah 4:6
• 5. Psalms 2:9; Isaiah 60:12
• 6. Psalms 1:4; Isaiah 17:13; Isaiah 41:15, 16; Hosea 13:3
• 7. Psalms 37:10, 36
• 8. Isaiah 2:2; Micah 4:1
• 9. Daniel 2:24
• 10. Isaiah 47:5; Jeremiah 27:6, 7; Ezekiel 26:7
• 11. Psalms 62:11
• 12. Psalms 50:10, 11; Daniel 4:21, 22
• 13. Daniel 7:23
• 14. Daniel 2:28, 37
• 15. Isaiah 9:6, 7
• 16. Psalms 145:13; Ezekiel 37:25; Daniel 4:3, 34; Daniel 6:26; Daniel 7:14, 27; Micah 4:7; Luke 1:32, 33
• 17. Psalms 2:9; Isaiah 60:12; Daniel 2:34, 35
• 18. Daniel 2:34
• 19. Deuteronomy 10:17; 2 Samuel 7:22; Psalms 48:1; Jeremiah 32:18, 19; Daniel 2:29; Malachi 1:11
• 20. Genesis 41:28, 32

Footnotes

• [a]. Lit "its splendor was surpassing"
• [b]. Lit "were"
• [c]. Lit "like one"
• [d]. Or "sovereignty"
• [e]. Lit "clay of mud"
• [f]. Lit "clay of mud"
• [g]. Or "with"
• [h]. Or "passed on to"
• [i]. Lit "after this"