Daniel 2:31-36, 44-45 (Vespers, 6th reading)
- 31
- “You, O king, were watching; and behold, a great image! This great image, whose splendor was excellent, stood before you; and its form was awesome.
- 32
- This image’s head was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze,
- 33
- its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay.
- 34
- You watched while a stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces.
- 35
- Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed together, and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; the wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found. And the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.
- 36
- “This is the dream. Now we will tell the interpretation of it before the king.
- 44
- In the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.
- 45
- Inasmuch as you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold – the great God has made known to the king what will come to pass after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation is sure.”