Daily Bread

³¹ “Your Majesty looked, and there before you stood a large statue—an enormous, dazzling statue,^(A) awesome^(B) in appearance. ³² The head of the statue was made of pure gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, ³³ its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay. ³⁴ While you were watching, a rock was cut out, but not by human hands.^(C) It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashed^(D) them.^{(E) 35} Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were all broken to pieces and became like chaff on a threshing floor in the summer. The wind swept them away^(F) without leaving a trace. But the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain^(G) and filled the whole earth.^(H)

³⁶ “This was the dream, and now we will interpret it to the king.^{(I) 37} Your Majesty, you are the king of kings.^(J) The God of heaven has given you dominion^(K) and power and might and glory; ³⁸ in your hands he has placed all mankind and the beasts of the field and the birds in the sky. Wherever they live, he has made you ruler over them all.^(L) You are that head of gold.

³⁹ “After you, another kingdom will arise, inferior to yours. Next, a third kingdom, one of bronze, will rule over the whole earth.^{(M) 40} Finally, there will be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron—for iron breaks and smashes everything—and as iron breaks things to pieces, so it will crush and break all the others.^{(N) 41} Just as you saw that the feet and toes were partly of baked clay and partly of iron, so this will be a divided kingdom; yet it will have some of the strength of iron in it, even as you saw iron mixed with clay. ⁴² As the toes were partly iron and partly clay, so this kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle. ⁴³ And just as you saw the iron mixed with baked clay, so the people will be a mixture and will not remain united, any more than iron mixes with clay.

⁴⁴ “In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush^(O) all those kingdoms^(P) and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever.^{(Q) 45} This is the meaning of the vision of the rock^(R) cut out of a mountain, but not by human hands^(S)—a rock that broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold to pieces.

“The great God has shown the king what will take place in the future.^(T) The dream is true^(U) and its interpretation is trustworthy.”

⁴⁶ Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell prostrate^(V) before Daniel and paid him honor and ordered that an offering^(W) and incense be presented to him. ⁴⁷ The king said to Daniel, “Surely your God is the God of gods^(X) and the Lord of kings^(Y) and a revealer of mysteries,^(Z) for you were able to reveal this mystery.^(AA)”

⁴⁸ Then the king placed Daniel in a high^(AB) position and lavished many gifts on him. He made him ruler over the entire province of Babylon and placed him in charge of all its wise men.^{(AC) 49} Moreover, at Daniel’s request the king appointed Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego administrators over the province of Babylon,^(AD) while Daniel himself remained at the royal court.^(AE)