Daniel 2:31-45 דניאל ב׳:ל״א-מ״ה

Thou, O king, didst see, and, behold, a great image. An image with a great base and of great radiance stood before thee, and its form was awesome.

This image's head was of fine gold, its breast and its arms of silver, its belly and its thighs of brass.

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

As thou didst look, a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon its feet which were of iron and clay, and broke them to pieces.

Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken in pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away so that no place was found for them [i.e., their original place was devoid of them]. And the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.

This is the dream, and we will state its meaning before the king.

Thou, O king — The King of Kings, the G-d of heaven, has given kingdom, power, strength, and glory to you.

And wherever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the birds of the sky, He has given them into thy hand, and has made thee ruler over them all; thou art the head of gold.

And after thee [(after your son Belshazzar)] shall arise another kingdom [(Paras and Madai, who shall depose your seed, a kingdom)] inferior to thee [(as silver is inferior to gold)], and another, third, kingdom of brass, [(as powerful as brass. The kingdom of Greece, of Alexander of Macedonia)] which shall bear rule over the earth.

And the fourth kingdom [(Rome, the iron legs, which are "fourth" to gold, silver and brass)] shall be strong as iron in that iron [i.e., an iron hammer] crushes and subdues all things. And like iron, that destroys all [(these metals that you saw in the image)], so shall it crush and shatter (them).

And whereas thou didst see the feet and toes, partly of potter's clay, and partly of iron, so it shall be a divided kingdom [(of two kings, one strong; the other weak)]; but there shall be in it [(the weaker, the clay)], of the strength of iron [(the stronger, which abets it)], just as thou didst see the iron mixed with miry clay.

And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly brittle.

and whereas thou didst see iron mixed with miry clay, so they [i.e., Rome] shall mingle themselves [(by intermarriage)] with the seed of men [i.e., with other nations]; but they shall not cleave one to another, just as iron does not mix with clay.

And in the days of these [Roman] kings shall the G-d of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed [(that of the Messiah)]. And the kingdom shall not be left to another people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.

Just as thou didst see that a stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold. The great G-d has made known to the king what shall come to pass after this [i.e., after your kingdom]; and the dream is true, and its interpretation sure.