Daniel 2.40-Daniel Tells Nebuchadnezzar That There Will Be A Fourth Kingdom, One Strong Like Iron Which Like Iron Will Break In Pieces And Crush Other Kingdoms
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Wednesday April 25, 2012
Daniel: Daniel 2:40-Daniel Tells Nebuchadnezzar That There Will Be A Fourth Kingdom, One Strong Like Iron, Which Like Iron Will Break In Pieces And Shatter Other Kingdoms
Lesson # 65
Please turn in your Bibles to Daniel 2:31.
This evening we will study Daniel 2:40, which records Daniel continuing to interpret the vision in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream by telling him that there will be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron because iron crushes as well as shatters everything to pieces.
He goes on to tell the king that consequently, like iron which breaks into pieces each of the metals on the statue, this fourth kingdom will crush as well as break into pieces every kingdom in its path.
Daniel 2:31 “You, O king, were looking and behold, there was a single great statue; that statue, which was large and of extraordinary splendor, was standing in front of you, and its appearance was awesome. 32 The head of that statue was made of fine gold, its breast and its arms of silver, its belly and its thighs of bronze, 33 its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. 34 You continued looking until a stone was cut out without hands, and it struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and crushed them. 35 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were crushed all at the same time and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them was found. But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. 36 This was the dream; now we will tell its interpretation before the king. 37 “You, O king, are the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, the strength and the glory. 38 And wherever the sons of men dwell, or the beasts of the field, or the birds of the sky, He has given them into your hand and has caused you to rule over them all. You are the head of gold. 39 After you there will arise another kingdom inferior to you, then another third kingdom of bronze, which will rule over all the earth. 40 Then there will be a fourth kingdom as strong as iron; inasmuch as iron crushes and shatters all things, so, like iron that breaks in pieces, it will crush and break all these in pieces.” (NASB95)
“Then there will be a fourth kingdom as strong as iron” is composed of the conjunction wa (וְ) (waw), “then” which is followed by the feminine singular form of the noun mǎl∙ḵûṯ (מַלְכוּת) (mal-kooth), “a kingdom” which is modified by the cardinal number reḇî∙ʿāy (רְבִיעָי) (reb-ee-ah´ee), “fourth” and then we have the third person feminine singular peʿal (Hebrew: qal) active imperfect form of the verb ḥǎwā(h) (חֲוָה) (khav-aw´), “there will be” which is followed by the masculine singular form of the adjective tǎq∙qîp̄ (תַּקִּיף) (tak-keef´), “as strong” and then we have the preposition k- (כְּ־) (kee), “as” and its object is the masculine singular noun pǎr∙zěl (פַּרְזֶל) (par-zel´), “iron.”
The conjunction wa is a marker of a sequence of closely related events meaning that it is introducing a statement that marks the next major world empire that will appear on the pages of history after the third kingdom which is represented by the bronze belly and thighs of the statue in Nebuchadnezzar’s vision in a dream.
The verb hǎwā(h) means, “to be, to come into existence” and denotes a fourth kingdom coming into existence.
Daniel is telling Nebuchadnezzar with this word that a fourth kingdom “will come into existence” after the third kingdom, which is Alexander the Great’s Greek Empire.
The noun mǎl∙ḵûṯ means “kingdom” and denotes the territorial sphere of this fourth empire’s authority or control and is used to designate the territorial sphere of this empire, which will arise in history after Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon, Medo-Persia and Alexander the Great’s Greek Empire.
It refers to the political boundaries of this fourth empire, which were determined by the extent to which this empire exercised its authority.
This word denotes that this fourth kingdom consisted of the nations, cities, villages and farmland it controlled.
The cardinal number reḇî∙ʿāy means “fourth” in a sequence indicating that Daniel is telling Nebuchadnezzar that there will be a “fourth” kingdom after the third kingdom.
The adjective tǎq∙qîp̄ means “strong” and is used here in Daniel 2:40 and in Daniel 2:42 to modify the noun pǎr∙zěl, “iron” and describes this metal’s hardness or tensile strength.
Together these two words describe the fourth kingdom, which history records as the Roman Empire.
This adjective is describing the military power and strength of this fourth kingdom, which was superior to Babylon, Medo-Persia and Greece.
As was the case in Daniel 2:33, the noun pǎr∙zěl, “iron” is used here in Daniel 2:40 to describe the fourth kingdom, which history records was the Roman Empire, which conquered the third empire, which was Greece.
The noun pǎr∙zěl, “iron” is the object of the preposition k-, which is a marker of comparison meaning that it is comparing the strength of the fourth kingdom to iron.
This comparison indicates that the military power of this fourth kingdom was superior to Babylon, Medo-Persia and Greece.
Just as iron shatters, crushes and pulverizes, so the Roman Empire shattered, crushed and pulverized more kingdoms and brought them into greater subjection than the empires of Babylon, Medo-Persia and Greece.
“Inasmuch as iron crushes and shatters all things” is composed of the preposition k- (כְּ־) (kee) which is followed by the preposition lĕ (לְ) (lamed) and then we have the preposition qǒḇēl (קֳבֵל) (kob-ale´) and this is followed by the relative particle dî (דִּי) (dee), and then we have the masculine singular noun pǎr∙zěl (פַּרְזֶל) (par-zel´), “iron” which is followed by the masculine plural hafʿel (Hebrew equivalent is the hiphil stem) active participle form of the verb deqǎq (דְּקַק) (dek-ak´), “crushes” and then we have the conjunction wa (וְ) (waw), “and” which is followed by the masculine singular peʿal (Hebrew: qal) active participle form of the verb ḥǎšǎl (חֲשַׁל) (khash-al´), “shatters” and then we have the singular noun kōl (כֹּל) (kole), “all things.”
The preposition k- is employed with the prepositions lĕ and qǒḇēl and the relative particle dî to form a conjunctive clause which means “because” since they are introducing a statement that presents the reason why the fourth kingdom is described as being strong as iron.
It is compared to iron because it would crush and shatter other kingdoms just as iron shatters and crushes all things.
The noun pǎr∙zěl means “iron,” but this time it is not used in a comparison between this fourth kingdom and the metal it signifies.
The verb deqǎq means “to crush” something into small pieces. Here it refers to the metal iron’s ability “to crush” all types materials.
Thus, Daniel is telling Nebuchadnezzar that the reason for comparing this fourth kingdom to the strength of iron is that like iron “crushes” all things so this empire will do the same.
The verb ḥǎšǎl means “to shatter to pieces” by means of a blow and here the word is used of course with iron as its subject and weaker materials as its object.
Thus, Daniel is describing iron “shattering to pieces” all things, i.e. weaker materials than itself.
So he is telling the king that the fourth kingdom will be strong like iron because iron “shatters to pieces” all things, i.e. weaker metals than itself, gold, silver and bronze.
The noun kōl means “all things, everything” and functions as a substantive referring to metals which are weaker than iron such as gold, silver and bronze.
“So, like iron that breaks in pieces” is composed of the conjunction wa (וְ) (waw), “so” which is followed by the preposition k (כְּ־) (kee), “like” and its object is the masculine singular noun pǎr∙zěl (פַּרְזֶל) (par-zel´), “iron” which is followed by the relative particle dî (דִּי) (dee), “that” which is followed by the masculine singular peʿal (Hebrew: qal) active participle form of the verb reʿǎʿ (רְעַע) (reh-ah´), “breaks in pieces” and then we have the singular noun kōl (כֹּל) (kole), “all” which is followed by the plural form of the demonstrative pronoun ʾil∙lên (אִלֵּין) (il-lane´), “these”
This time the conjunction wa is introducing a statement that presents the result of the preceding causal clause which says that iron crushes as well as shatters to pieces everything.
The word introduces a comparative clause, which compares iron’s ability to crush everything to the fourth kingdom which will crush as well as shatter every kingdom it confronts in war.
Thus, the word denotes that there will be a fourth kingdom, one strong as iron because iron crushes as well as shatters to pieces everything “therefore” just as iron crushes, this fourth kingdom will break in pieces and crush every kingdom it confronts in war.
Once again, the preposition k- functions as a marker of comparison meaning that it is introducing the protasis of a comparative clause which says that iron breaks in pieces.
The apodosis of this comparative clause says that this fourth kingdom will crush and break all these other metals such as gold, silver and bronze.
Therefore, this preposition is introducing the protasis of a comparative clause which compares the ability of iron to crush and break in pieces gold, silver and bronze with this fourth kingdom which will crush and break in pieces any kingdom that they confront.
Once again, the noun pǎr∙zěl means “iron,” and is used in a comparison between this fourth kingdom and the metal which represents it.
The verb reʿǎʿ means “to break into pieces” and is used here with the metal iron as its subject indicating that Daniel is telling the king that like iron, which breaks into pieces, so this fourth kingdom will crush and break to pieces every kingdom that comes in its path.
The demonstrative pronoun ʾil∙lên means “these” and is anaphoric meaning that it is referring to the other metals on the statue that appeared in a vision to Nebuchadnezzar.
The word is modified by the noun kōl, which is used in a distributive sense meaning “each and every.”
These two words are referring to the gold, silver and bronze metals that helped to compose the statue in the vision God gave Nebuchadnezzar in a dream indicating that iron breaks into pieces “each and every one of these” metals.
“It will crush and break all these in pieces” is composed of the feminine singular hafʿel (Hebrew equivalent is the hiphil stem) active imperfect form of the verb deqǎq (דְּקַק) (dek-ak´), “it will crush” and then we have the conjunction wa (וְ) (waw), “and” which is followed by the feminine singular peʿal (Hebrew: qal) active imperfect form of the verb reʿǎʿ (רְעַע) (reh-ah´), “breaks in pieces.”
Once again, the verb deqǎq means “to crush” something into small pieces.
However, this time it appears in the apodasis of this comparative clause and its subject is the fourth kingdom.
Here it refers to the fourth kingdom’s ability “to crush” every kingdom that it confronts in war.
Thus, Daniel is telling Nebuchadnezzar that like iron breaks into pieces gold, silver and bronze, this fourth kingdom “will crush to pieces” every nation it is confronted with in war.
Once again, the verb reʿǎʿ means “to break into pieces” but this time its subject is the fourth kingdom indicating that Daniel is telling the king that like iron, which breaks into pieces, so this fourth kingdom will crush and “break to pieces” every kingdom that comes in its path.
Daniel 2:40 records Daniel continuing to interpret Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, which contained a vision of an immense statue in the form of a man.
The declarative statement “there will be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron” expresses the fact that after the third kingdom, which history records as Alexander the Great’s Greek Empire, there will be yet another great Gentile power, which history records is the Roman Empire.
The Roman Empire broke into pieces and shattered to pieces more kingdoms and brought them into greater subjection than Babylon, Medo-Persia and Greece.
Some modern interpreters have attempted to identify these four kingdoms as Babylon, followed by Media and then Persian and lastly Greece.
They do this in order to fit the Book into their view that Daniel was written during the persecution of the Jews by Antiochus Epiphanes in 175-165 B.C.
However, in Daniel 8:20, Daniel identifies Media and Persia as a single empire represented by a single animal, which is the ram.
This confirms the interpretation that Medo-Persia was the second empire.
Furthermore history does not demonstrate that the Median Empire was followed by a Persian Empire.
In 65 B.C., the Roman general Pompey conquered Syria and by 30 B.C. Augustus had conquered Egypt and had taken over Jerusalem establishing himself as the first Roman emperor.
The Roman Empire deserved its representation as the “iron empire” since it subdued and destroyed the remnants of the preceding empires as well as many other nations.
Interestingly, however, the Roman Empire and civilization incorporated much of the Greek culture, even identifying their gods with those of the Greeks.
Also Persian and Babylonian cults and customs spread throughout the Roman Empire.
The Greek language became the language of trade, commerce and government communication in the eastern half of the Roman Empire and even in the city of Rome itself.
The fact that the iron lower legs belong to the statue indicates that Rome represented by the iron lower legs would incorporate the language, customs, culture and gods of Babylon, Medo-Persia and Greece.
Thus, in a sense these three previous kingdoms in a sense were not completely destroyed.
However, Christ’s Second Advent will destroy any remembrance of these former kingdoms as depicted in the rock cut out of a mountain without human hands striking the image on the feet and destroying the entire image.
Since the metals of the statue in the vision of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream decrease in value but increase in strength, the iron lower legs of the statue indicate that the character of the authority in rulership of the Roman Empire was inferior to Alexander’s Greece, Media-Persia and Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon.
However, its military power or strength was superior to these three.
The two legs of iron are an accurate portrayal of the Roman Empire since it ruled extensive areas of both the western and eastern divisions of the world and eventually was divided in A.D. 364 into two political divisions, the Western portion had Rome as its capital and the East had Constantinople as its capital.
The Roman Empire was characterized by its strength, as iron is stronger than bronze (Greece), silver (Medo-Persia) and gold (Babylon) and was thus stronger than all the empires that preceded it.