Chapter 45

¹ Since, then, the blessed Daniel recounted the vision to the king and did not keep silent about its interpretation, he left the inquiry to those who possess an upright mind, so that again the things said by Daniel might be expounded by others.

² It is necessary for lovers of truth to investigate carefully, and not, merely reading in passing, to suppose that the things spoken by the prophets were uttered to no clear purpose.

³ For he beholds a great image, and confesses that its head is of fine gold; then he relates that its shoulders and chest are silver; next its belly and thighs bronze; then its legs iron; and likewise the toes of its feet clay and iron mingled together; then a stone cut from a mountain without hands, striking the image and crushing it small; and the stone itself became a great mountain and filled all the earth.

⁴ Having said these things about the image, he afterward divides it according to its form, and transferring it part by part into kingdoms, member by member he expounds it: he says that the gold is the king Nebuchadnezzar himself, explaining that this is the golden head of the image.

⁵ Then he names a second kingdom, hinting at it obscurely, saying that the silver is inferior to this one.

⁶ Then a third, which is the bronze.

⁷ Then a fourth, a strong one, which is the iron.

⁸ Then clay and iron mingled together are shown as the extremities of the feet of the image.

⁹ For he began from the head, to point out the gold; then the chest and the arms, and he names silver; then the belly and thighs, and he signifies the bronze; then he recounts the legs, and points to iron; then the feet and ten toes, and he proclaims clay and iron; after these things nothing remains to be seen but a stone cut from a mountain and striking the image, becoming at the last a great mountain and filling all the earth.