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- The King’s Request
- The Dream
- The Interpretation
- Head of Gold
- Chest of Silver
- Stomach and Thighs of Brass
- Legs of Iron
- Feet of Iron and Miry Clay
- The Reaction of King Nebuchadnezzar
- References and Footnotes
- Other Pages to View
The King’s Request
The Dream
The Interpretation
Daniel explains the symbols in the dream one by one.
Body Part | Metal | Moh’s Hardness [1] | Nation Represented |
Head | Gold | 2.5-3 | Babylon |
Chest and Arms | Silver | 2.5-3 | Medo-Persia |
Belly and Thighs | Brass | 3 | Greece |
Legs | Iron | 4.5 | Rome |
Feet | Iron + Clay | Papal Rome (European Dominion) |
Head of Gold
The head of the statue which appears as gold is the most brilliant kingdom. Babylon was known for its opulence. To this day, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon are still regarded as one of the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World.
Chest of Silver
The breast and arms of the statue was to arise after Babylon. This nation would be stronger in terms of military (hence the ability to overthrow the first kingdom), but it would be inferior. The Medo-Persian empire conquered Babylon (something we see in chapter ? of Daniel).
Stomach and Thighs of Brass
Brass is an alloy made of copper and zinc. It is still shiny and alluring to the eye, but less valuable and less expensive than gold or silver. The kingdom represented by brass is that of Greece. Alexander the Great overthrew the Persian empire, establishing Greek dominance in the region. Daniel says this kingdom will bear rule all over the earth. Compared to Babylon and Persia, Greece was massive! Not only did Greece cover the Middle East, North Africa, and Mediterranean Europe, it also extended into Asia.
Legs of Iron
Iron is the hardest material listed in the statue, and Rome was the toughest kingdom. Daniel says that this kingdom would break things in pieces and bruise. To this day, Roman influence is all over the world. From architecture, to the olympics, to the names of our days of the week, all of these are bruises from Rome. Moreover, Rome was the most brutal to Israel. While Israel existed in captivity through all of these kingdoms, Rome is the one that had the harshest rule. It is the Roman siege of Jerusalem that ended the Temple for good and caused people to eat their own children.[2]
Feet of Iron and Miry Clay
The final kingdom is a divided nation represented by iron and clay. It is strong like the iron, but the different parts will not cleave together. You will hear some claim that this kingdom is America, and while I agree that the Americas are an extension of this kingdom, it is actually Papal Rome. When Rome fell, it broke into ten kingdoms, but was upheld by Papal Rome. From roughly 500 CE through the late 1700’s, the popes controlled all of Europe. Even today, we have six Catholics sitting as Supreme Court Justices in the United States, and it was the Catholic position that Roe v. Wade should be abolished. Those same European countries that were born from the fall of Rome, are the ones that colonized most of the world. Despite this shared origin, there has been in-fighting between the remnants of Rome throughout history. It is these nations that fought WWI and WWII, because they do not cleave together. These are the nations that will see the end of the world come together.
The Reaction of King Nebuchadnezzar
References and Footnotes
- Moh’s Hardness is a scale used to determine the strength or hardness of a material. Diamonds are the hardest material and are categorized as a 10 on the Moh’s Hardness scale. The values provided in the table are based on information found at geology.com and jewelrynotes.com
- Dr. Wendy Love Anderson. “Parents Eating their Children — The Torah’s Curse and Its Undertones in Medieval Interpretation”. TheTorah.com. 2018; visited July 16, 2022