Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and 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 art this head of gold. And after thee shall rise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth. And the fourth kingdom 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 pieces and bruise. And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters' 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 the miry clay. And as the toes and the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken. And whereas thou sawest 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 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 kingdoms and it shall stand forever. 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. [27] As understood by the learned, Daniel's interpretation stands thus: "(1) The _Golden Head_--the Assyrio-Babylonish monarchy (the 6th and 5th century B.C.); "(2) The _Silver Breast and Arms_--the Medo-Persian empire (from 538 B.C. to about 330 B.C.); "(3) The _Brazen Belly and Thighs_--the Greco-Macedonian kingdom, especially after Alexander, those of Egypt and Syria (from about 330 B.C. to 160 B.C.); "(4) The _Legs of Iron_--the power of Rome, bestriding the east and west, but broken into a number of states, the ten toes, which retained some of its warlike strength (the iron), mingled with elements of weakness (the soft potters' clay), which rendered the whole imperial structure unstable. {XXXVIII} "(5) The _Stone_ cut without hands out of the _Living Rock_, dashing down the image, becoming a great mountain, and filling all the earth--_The Spiritual Kingdom of Christ_." The last phrase--"The Spiritual Kingdom of Christ"--meaning of course the "Christian churches" which have existed from the time of Christ, and that now exist, and which, taken together, form Christ's spiritual kingdom.