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| 1 And in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams; and his spirit was troubled, and his sleep went from him. |
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| 2 Then the king commanded to call the magicians, and the enchanters, and the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans, to tell the king his dreams. So they came in and stood before the king. |
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| 3 And the king said unto them, I have dreamed a dream, and my spirit is troubled to know the dream. |
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| 4 Then spake the Chaldeans to the king in the Syrian language, O king, live for ever: tell thy servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation. |
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| 5 The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, The thing is gone from me: if ye make not known unto me the dream and the interpretation thereof, ye shall be cut in pieces, and your houses shall be made a dunghill. |
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| 6 But if ye show the dream and the interpretation thereof, ye shall receive of me gifts and rewards and great honor: therefore show me the dream and the interpretation thereof. |
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| 7 They answered the second time and said, Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation. |
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| 8 The king answered and said, I know of a certainty that ye would gain time, because ye see the thing is gone from me. |
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| 9 But if ye make not known unto me the dream, there is but one law for you; for ye have prepared lying and corrupt words to speak before me, till the time be changed: therefore tell me the dream, and I shall know that ye can show me the interpretation thereof. |
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| 10 The Chaldeans answered before the king, and said, There is not a man upon the earth that can show the king’s matter, forasmuch as no king, lord, or ruler, hath asked such a thing of any magician, or enchanter, or Chaldean. |
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| 11 And it is a rare thing that the king requireth, and there is no other that can show it before the king, except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh. |
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| 12 For this cause the king was angry and very furious, and commanded to destroy all the wise men of Babylon. |
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| 13 So the decree went forth, and the wise men were to be slain; and they sought Daniel and his companions to be slain. |
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| 14 Then Daniel returned answer with counsel and prudence to Arioch the captain of the king’s guard, who was gone forth to slay the wise men of Babylon; |
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| 15 he answered and said to Arioch the king’s captain, Wherefore is the decree so urgent from the king? Then Arioch made the thing known to Daniel. |
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| 16 And Daniel went in, and desired of the king that he would appoint him a time, and he would show the king the interpretation. |
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| 17 Then Daniel went to his house, and made the thing known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions: |
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| 18 that they would desire mercies of the God of heaven concerning this secret; that Daniel and his companions should not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. |
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| 19 Then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a vision of the night. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven. |
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| 20 Daniel answered and said, Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever; for wisdom and might are his. |
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| 21 And he changeth the times and the seasons; he removeth kings, and setteth up kings; he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that have understanding; |
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| 22 he revealeth the deep and secret things; he knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with him. |
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| 23 I thank thee, and praise thee, O thou God of my fathers, who hast given me wisdom and might, and hast now made known unto me what we desired of thee; for thou hast made known unto us the king’s matter. |
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| 24 Therefore Daniel went in unto Arioch, whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of Babylon; he went and said thus unto him: Destroy not the wise men of Babylon; bring me in before the king, and I will show unto the king the interpretation. |
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| 25 Then Arioch brought in Daniel before the king in haste, and said thus unto him, I have found a man of the children of the captivity of Judah, that will make known unto the king the interpretation. |
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| 26 The king answered and said to Daniel, whose name was Bel-teshazzar, Art thou able to make known unto me the dream which I have seen, and the interpretation thereof? |
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| 27 Daniel answered before the king, and said, The secret which the king hath demanded can neither wise men, enchanters, magicians, nor soothsayers, show unto the king; |
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| 28 but there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and he hath made known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days. Thy dream, and the visions of thy head upon thy bed, are these: |
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| 29 as for thee, O king, thy thoughts came into thy mind upon thy bed, what should come to pass hereafter; and he that revealeth secrets hath made known to thee what shall come to pass. |
Thee, O king – Nebuchadnezzar, picturing (as the 'head of gold') not only the Gentile kings, governments, but especially the Babylon. |
| 30 But as for me, this secret is not revealed to me for any wisdom that I have more than any living, but to the intent that the interpretation may be made known to the king, and that thou mayest know the thoughts of thy heart. |
Not revealed to me for any wisdom that I have – Notice how this attitude is shared by Pastor Russell in the following quote: "Though in this work we shall endeavor, and we trust with success, to set before the interested and unbiased reader the plan of God as it relates to and explains the past, the present and the future of his dealings, in a way more harmonious, beautiful and reasonable than is generally understood, yet that this is the result of extraordinary wisdom or ability on the part of the writer is positively disclaimed. It is the light from the Sun of Righteousness in this dawning of the Millennial Day that reveals these things as "present truth," now due to be appreciated by the sincere, the pure in heart." A10 |
| 31 Thou, O king, sawest, and, behold, a great image. This image, which was mighty, and whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the aspect thereof was fearful. |
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| 32 As for this image, its head was of fine gold, its breast and its arms of silver, its belly and its thighs of copper, |
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| 33 its legs of iron, its feet part of iron, and part of clay. |
Feet – The last part of the body. In this case it is the 'body' of the Roman Empire.
Iron – The strength of the civil power of Rome.
Clay – The ecclestiacal power of the 'Holy Roman Empire.' |
| 34 Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon its feet that were of the iron and clay, and brake them in pieces. |
A stone – The true Kingdom of God.
Without hands – i.e., this is not the work of man.
His feet that were of iron and clay – This is the union of church (clay) and iron (state, civil power) of Europe. The United States is not part of this picture for here we have no king and the union of church and state is against the law - (consider the first ammendment to the Constitution.) – see R5854:1. |
| 35 Then was the iron, the clay, the copper, the silver, and the gold, broken in pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing-floors; and the wind carried them away, so that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth. |
Summer – Summer here is Strong's 7007 which only appears here. According to professor Strong this means 'Harvest.'
Threshingfloors – Most translations render this in the singular - Threshingfloor.
Thus this should read 'became like the chaff of the Harvest threshingfloor'. |
| 36 This is the dream; and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king. |
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| 37 Thou, O king, art king of kings, unto whom the God of heaven hath given the kingdom, the power, and the strength, and the glory; |
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| 38 and wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the birds of the heavens hath he given into thy hand, and hath made thee to rule over them all: thou art the head of gold. |
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| 39 And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee; and another third kingdom of copper, which shall bear rule over all the earth. |
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| 40 And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron, forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things; and as iron that crusheth all these, shall it break in pieces and crush.
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Break in pieces – This phrase, describing the crushing power of the Gentile governments, is used by the Lord to describe His work of crushing these very Gentile powers. Note this in vs. 34, 44 and 45 (especially note additional comments on vs 44). |
| 41 And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters’ clay, and part of iron, it shall be a divided kingdom; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay.
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The feet and toes – "The ten toes of the image represent the ten divisions of the Roman Empire, though they have varied over the centuries. France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, England, Spain, Portugal, Lombardy, Romania, and Ravenna."
Part of potter's clay – See Psa. 2:6-9 |
| 42 And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly brittle.
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| 43 And whereas thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men; but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron doth not mingle with clay.
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Iron mixed with clay – Civil power (kings) intertwined with the churches (clay), i.e., church-state union.
They – The clay, the (supposed) church.
Shall mingle themselves – Nominal church.
With the seed of men – With the civil power. They were supposed to remain seperate from the seed of men because they were supposed to be Abraham's seed (as the body of Christ) - Gal. 3:29.
So then, we see that the correct understanding of this mixture of iron and clay is the union of church and state. This is what is smitten.
We should remember that there was another time when those who were spiritual (as was claimed by the Nominal Church) mingled themselves with the seed of mankind, i.e., before the flood. See Gen. 6:2,4,13. We remember that God destroyed that arrangement too. |
| 44 And in the days of those kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, nor shall the sovereignty thereof be left to another people; but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. |
In the days of these kings – Not just any kings will do, no, it must be in the days of these kings, i.e., in the days of the nations of Christendom.
This cannot refer to the 4 universal empires as being the kings because ancient Babylon had long since ceased to be. So much so that for a long period of time, scoffers of the Bible suggested that it had never even existed. These scoffings only stopped when the ancient city had been discovered by archeologists.
It shall break in pieces – The kingdom of God does the breaking in pieces of Christendom. Yet, even now in its embryo state, their is a breaking in pieces going on. See comments on Eze. 9:2 'slaughter weapon.'
Here we see God's Justice in operation. He does to the Gentile governments what they did to the people they had rule over. (See vs. 40)
The Kingdom of God strikes the toes of the kings of Christendom (most appropriately symbolized by the city of Rome). Remembering that Rome is the capital of Italy, notice how God has portrayed this in the geography of the land. In this picture, the island of Sicily is the stone which smites the Roman Empire (Italy) on its toes.
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| 45 Forasmuch as thou sawest that a stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the copper, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure. |
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| 46 Then the king Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face, and worshipped Daniel, and commanded that they should pour out an oblation and sweet odors unto him. |
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| 47 The king answered unto Daniel, and said, Of a truth your God is the God of gods, and the Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, seeing thou hast been able to reveal this secret. |
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| 48 Then the king made Daniel great, and gave him many great gifts, and made him to rule over the whole province of Babylon, and to be chief governor over all the wise men of Babylon. |
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| 49 And Daniel requested of the king, and he appointed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, over the affairs of the province of Babylon: but Daniel was in the gate of the king. |
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