Daniel 2:38–45

³⁸and also human beings wherever they dwell,^l the animals of the field and the birds^m of heavenⁿ—he has given into your hand and made you ruler over all of them—you are the head of gold. ³⁹And after you another kingdom inferior to yours will arise, and another third kingdom of bronze that will rule over the whole earth. ⁴⁰And a fourth kingdom will be strong as iron, and just as^o iron crushes and smashes everything,^p and as iron shatters all of these other metals, so it will crush and it will shatter these nations. ⁴¹And just as^q you saw the feet and the toes, partly potter’s clay^r and partly iron,^s it will be a divided kingdom; and some hardness^t of the iron will be in it, just as^u you have seen the iron mixed with the wet clay. ⁴²And as the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly clay, so part of the kingdom will be strong and partly brittle.^{v 43}And in that you saw the iron was mixed with wet clay, so they will mix in marriage^w and they will not cling to one another,^x just as iron does not mix with clay. ⁴⁴And in the day of those kings,^y the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never^z be destroyed, and the kingdom will not be left for another nation,^a and it will bring an end to all these kingdoms, but it will stand forever.^{b 45}Inasmuch as^c you saw that a stone from the mountain was chiseled out^d but not by hands, and that it crushed the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold, thereby the great God made known to the king what will be in the future,^e and the dream is certain and its explanation trustworthy.”