Sivut kuvina
PDF
ePub

THE FIRST VISION

OF

NEBUCHADNEZZAR.

THE GREAT IMAGE.

THE Five Kingdoms or Empires. The BaybylonicAssyrian, B.C. 680. The Medo-Persian, B.C. 536. The Greek, B.C. 331. The Roman, B.C. 168, with its ten disunited unequal papal Gothic kingdoms, A.D.553. The kingdom of the Word of God.

Dan. ii. 31.-Thou, O king, sawest, and, behold, a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee, and the 32 form thereof was terrible. This image's head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of sil33 ver, his belly and his thighs of brass, his legs of 34 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 of clay, and brake them to 35 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.

36 This is the dream; and we will tell the inter37 pretation thereof before the king. Thou, O king,

art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and 38 glory. And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field, and the fowls of the heaven, hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou 39 art this head of gold. And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear 40 rule over all the earth. And the fourth king

dom 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 41 pieces and bruise. And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potter's 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 42 clay. And as the toes of the feet were part of iron and part of clay; so the kingdom shall be 43 partly strong, and partly broken. And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but shall not cleave one to another, even as 44 iron is not mixed with clay. And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a

kingdom, which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these 45 kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, 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.

« EdellinenJatka »