30. This secret wasn’t revealed to me because I’m wiser than anyone else. It was revealed so that you could be told the meaning and so that you would know your innermost thoughts.
31. “Your Majesty, you had a vision. You saw a large statue. This statue was very bright. It stood in front of you, and it looked terrifying.
32. The head of this statue was made of fine gold. Its chest and arms were made of silver. Its stomach and hips were made of bronze.
33. Its legs were made of iron. Its feet were made partly of iron and partly of clay.
34. While you were watching, a stone was cut out, but not by humans. It struck the statue’s iron-and-clay feet and smashed them.
35. Then all at once, the iron, clay, bronze, silver, and gold were smashed. They became like husks on a threshing floor in summer. The wind carried them away, and not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the statue became a large mountain which filled the whole world.
36. This is the dream. Now we’ll tell you its meaning.
37. “Your Majesty, you are the greatest king. The God of heaven has given you a kingdom. He has given you power, strength, and honor.
38. He has given you control over people, wild animals, and birds, wherever they live. He has made you ruler of them all. You are the head of gold.
39. Another kingdom, inferior to yours, will rise to power after you. Then there will be a third kingdom, a kingdom of bronze, that will rule the whole world.
40. There will also be a fourth kingdom. It will be as strong as iron. (Iron smashes and shatters everything.) As iron crushes things, this fourth kingdom will smash and crush all the other kingdoms.
41. You also saw the feet and toes. They were partly potters’ clay and partly iron. This means that there will be a divided kingdom which has some of the firmness of iron. As you saw, iron was mixed with clay.
42. The toes were partly iron and partly clay. Part of the kingdom will be strong, and part will be brittle.
43. As you saw, iron was mixed with clay. So the two parts of the kingdom will mix by intermarrying, but they will not hold together any more than iron can mix with clay.
44. “At the time of those kings, the God of heaven will establish a kingdom that will never be destroyed. No other people will be permitted to rule it. It will smash all the other kingdoms and put an end to them. But it will be established forever.