Chapter 41

¹ He says, then: “You, O king, were watching, and behold, one image. That image was great, and its appearance terrible: an image whose head was of fine gold, its hands and breast and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. You were watching until a stone was cut out without hands and struck the image upon its feet of iron and clay and broke them utterly to pieces. Then at once were broken to pieces the clay, the iron, the bronze, the silver, the gold, and they became like dust from a summer threshing-floor; and the strength of the wind carried them off, and no place was found for them. And the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled all the earth. This is the dream, and we will tell its interpretation before the king. You, O king, are a king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given a strong and mighty and honored kingdom in every place where the sons of men dwell; the beasts of the field and the birds of heaven he has given into your hand and has set you lord over all: you are the head of gold. And after you shall arise another kingdom inferior to you; and a third kingdom, which is the bronze, which shall rule over all the earth; and a fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: in the manner that iron breaks in pieces and subdues all things, so shall it break in pieces and subdue all. And whereas you saw the feet and the toes partly of iron and partly of clay, the kingdom shall be divided, and there shall be in it of the root of iron, in the manner you saw the iron mixed with the clay. And the toes of the feet partly of iron and partly of clay—part of the kingdom shall be strong and part of it broken. Whereas you saw the iron mixed with the clay, they shall be mingled in the seed of men, but shall not cleave one to another, just as iron does not mingle with clay. And in the days of those kings the God of heaven shall raise up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed unto the ages, and its kingdom shall not be left to another people; it shall break in pieces and winnow all the kingdoms, and it shall itself arise unto the ages, in the manner you saw that a stone was cut from a mountain without hands and broke in pieces the clay, the iron, the bronze, the silver, the gold. The great God has made known to the king what must come to pass after these things; and the dream is true, and its interpretation faithful.”