35. At once the iron, clay, bronze, silver, and gold crumbled and became like the dust on a threshing place in summer. The wind carried it all away, leaving not a trace. But the stone grew to be a mountain that covered the whole earth.
36. “This was the dream. Now I will tell Your Majesty what it means.
37. Your Majesty, you are the greatest of all kings. The God of heaven has made you emperor and given you power, might, and honour.
38. He has made you ruler of all the inhabited earth and ruler over all the animals and birds. You are the head of gold.
39. After you there will be another empire, not as great as yours, and after that a third, an empire of bronze, which will rule the whole earth.
40. And then there will be a fourth empire, as strong as iron, which shatters and breaks everything. And just as iron shatters everything, it will shatter and crush all the earlier empires.
41. You also saw that the feet and the toes were partly clay and partly iron. This means that it will be a divided empire. It will have something of the strength of iron, because there was iron mixed with the clay.
42. The toes — partly iron and partly clay — mean that part of the empire will be strong and part of it weak.