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Prophets and Kings
breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, his legs
of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay.
“Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which
smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake
them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and
the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the
summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, that no
place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became
a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.
“This is the dream,” confidently declared Daniel; and the king,
listening with closest attention to every particular, knew it was the
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very dream over which he had been so troubled. Thus his mind was
prepared to receive with favor the interpretation. The King of kings
was about to communicate great truth to the Babylonian monarch.
God would reveal that He has power over the kingdoms of the world,
power to enthrone and to dethrone kings. Nebuchadnezzar’s mind was
to be awakened, if possible, to a sense of his responsibility to Heaven.
The events of the future, reaching down to the end of time, were to be
opened before him.
“Thou, O king, art a king of kings,” Daniel continued, “for the God
of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory.
And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and
fowls of the heaven hath He given into thine hand, and hath made thee
ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold.
“And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and
another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth.
“And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron
breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh
all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise.
“And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters’ clay,
and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of
the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with
miry clay. And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay,
so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken. And whereas
thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves
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with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as
iron is not mixed with clay.”