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air, and whom he has established as ruler over them all—you are the head of gold. After you shall arise another kingdom inferior to yours, and yet a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over the whole earth. And there shall be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron; just as iron crushes and smashes everything, it shall crush and shatter all these. As you saw the feet and toes partly of potter's clay and partly of iron, it shall be a divided kingdom; but some of the strength of iron shall be in it, as you saw the iron mixed with the clay. As the toes of the feet were part iron and part clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly brittle. As you saw the iron mixed with clay, so will they mix with one another in marriage, but they will not hold together, just as iron does not mix with clay. And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall this kingdom be left to another people. It shall crush all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever; just as you saw that a stone was cut from the mountain not by hands, and that it crushed the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold. The great God has informed the king what shall be hereafter. The dream is certain, and its interpretation trustworthy.
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its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. As you looked on, a stone was cut out, not by human hands, and it struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and broke them in pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold, were all broken in pieces and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, so that not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.
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You were looking, O king, and lo! there was a great statue. This statue was huge, its brilliance extraordinary; it was standing before you, and its appearance was frightening. The head of that statue was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its middle and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron,
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successor states, such as the
Seleucid Empire that then ruled Judea. These successor states had Greek military settlements with an imported Greek elite, but generally did not over mix with the locals, and were clearly not believed to be as strong as the Greek empire of Alexander's day, which was
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This was the dream; now we will tell the king its interpretation. You, O king, the king of kings—to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, the might, and the glory, into whose hand he has given human beings, wherever they live, the wild animals of the field, and the birds of the
37:, especially in people of prominence and power. It can also be used to refer to larger groups, such as societies, businesses, and empires. An entity with feet of clay may appear powerful and unstoppable, but they cannot support their splendor, and will easily be knocked over.
134:, that is, "prophecies" of events that had already happened in the past for the author. The generally accepted interpretation of the statue dream is that it predicts the history of the Middle East up until the time of writing. The golden empire is the
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pure iron. The actual prediction being made, then, is the fate of the fifth empire of the
Seleucids: that it will be smashed by a stone "not cut from human hands", that is, by the work of God.
128:. The author of the Book of Daniel wanted to reassure readers that the end of Antiochus IV's tyranny had been foreseen by the prophet Daniel 400 years ago. To that end, the book includes
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floor, and blown to the winds. The image of the expensive statue laid low has resonated as an analogy for seemingly powerful figures with substantial weaknesses.
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around 168 BCE. This persecution led both to passive resistance as well as eventually an armed military resistance movement, the
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should promise would be to "improve" mankind. No new idols are erected by me; let the old ones learn what feet of clay mean.
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A well known instance of this phrase is in Byron's poem, "Ode to
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In this great temple deserted by the gods, all my idols have feet of clay.
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from 175–164 BC. Under
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Zdravko
Stefanovic (2007), "King Nebuchadnezzar's first dream",
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Daniel: Wisdom to the Wise: Commentary on the Book of Daniel
146:; and the fourth iron empire is the Macedonian empire of
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The
Maccabean Revolt: Anatomy of a Biblical Revolution
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313:Leonard Mann (2006), "Feet of Clay",
168:Thanks for that lesson—it will teach
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182:Those Pagod things of sabre sway,
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403:Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte
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131:vaticinium ex eventu
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