In the days of those kingsThis phrase refers to the time of the divided kingdoms represented by the feet and toes of the statue in Nebuchadnezzar's dream, as interpreted by Daniel. These kingdoms are often understood to be the remnants of the Roman Empire, characterized by division and fragility. Historically, this period is marked by political instability and fragmentation, which aligns with the prophetic imagery of iron mixed with clay.
the God of heaven will set up a kingdom
This kingdom is divinely established, contrasting with earthly kingdoms that rise and fall through human effort and conquest. The phrase "God of heaven" emphasizes the divine origin and authority of this kingdom. This is a central theme in biblical prophecy, where God's sovereignty is ultimately manifested in the establishment of His eternal kingdom. This kingdom is often associated with the messianic reign of Christ, as seen in prophecies likeIsaiah 9:6-7 and the New Testament's depiction of the Kingdom of God.
that will never be destroyed
The permanence of this kingdom is a key aspect, highlighting its divine nature. Unlike earthly kingdoms that are temporary and subject to decay, this kingdom is eternal. This reflects the biblical theme of God's unchanging nature and His eternal purposes, as seen in passages likePsalm 145:13 andHebrews 12:28.
nor will it be left to another people
This indicates that the kingdom will not be transferred or succeeded by another group, unlike historical empires that were often conquered and absorbed by others. This permanence and exclusivity underscore the unique and sovereign rule of God. It also points to the fulfillment of God's promises to Israel and the inclusion of all believers in this eternal kingdom, as seen inRevelation 5:9-10.
It will shatter all these kingdoms and bring them to an end
The imagery of shattering suggests a decisive and overwhelming victory over all earthly powers. This aligns with the biblical theme of God's ultimate triumph over evil and the establishment of His justice. The prophetic vision inDaniel 2 parallels other apocalyptic literature, such as Revelation, where God's kingdom prevails over worldly powers.
but will itself stand forever
The eternal nature of this kingdom is emphasized again, reinforcing its divine origin and indestructibility. This eternal kingdom is a central hope in Christian eschatology, where believers anticipate the full realization of God's reign. The permanence of this kingdom is a source of comfort and assurance, as seen in passages like1 Corinthians 15:24-28, where Christ's ultimate victory and reign are described.
Persons / Places / Events
1.
DanielA prophet and interpreter of dreams in the Babylonian and Persian empires. He is the one who interprets King Nebuchadnezzar's dream in
Daniel 2.
2.
NebuchadnezzarThe king of Babylon who had a dream of a great statue representing successive kingdoms, which Daniel interprets.
3.
God of HeavenThe sovereign deity who reveals the future through dreams and establishes an eternal kingdom.
4.
The KingdomRefers to the divine kingdom established by God, which is eternal and indestructible.
5.
The KingsThe rulers of the earthly kingdoms represented in Nebuchadnezzar's dream, which are ultimately temporary and will be replaced by God's eternal kingdom.
Teaching Points
The Sovereignty of GodGod's plan is ultimate and unchangeable. He is in control of history and the future, establishing His kingdom in His timing.
The Temporary Nature of Earthly KingdomsEarthly powers and authorities are transient. Believers should focus on the eternal kingdom rather than temporary worldly systems.
Hope in God's Eternal KingdomChristians can find hope and assurance in the promise of God's everlasting kingdom, which offers stability and peace beyond this world.
Active Participation in God's KingdomBelievers are called to live as citizens of God's kingdom now, reflecting its values and priorities in their daily lives.
Bible Study Questions and Answers
1.What is the meaning of Daniel 2:44?
2.How does Daniel 2:44 describe God's kingdom compared to earthly kingdoms?
3.What does "never be destroyed" imply about the nature of God's kingdom?
4.How does Daniel 2:44 connect with Jesus' teachings on the Kingdom of God?
5.How can we prioritize God's eternal kingdom in our daily lives?
6.What actions can we take to align with the kingdom described in Daniel 2:44?
7.How does Daniel 2:44 relate to the concept of God's eternal kingdom?
8.What historical evidence supports the prophecy in Daniel 2:44?
9.How does Daniel 2:44 challenge modern political systems?
10.What are the top 10 Lessons from Daniel 2?
11.What defines the kingdom of God?
12.What does the Bible say about the end times?
13.What does "kingdom of God" mean beyond eating and drinking?
14.What is the Kingdom of God like?What Does Daniel 2:44 Mean
In the days of those kings- Daniel’s vision sets the timing: the prophecy unfolds while the final group of earthly rulers—symbolized by the toes of the statue (Daniel 2:41-43)—still governs.
- Scripture aligns this with a future confederation of kingdoms that arises just prior to Christ’s return (Daniel 7:24;Revelation 17:12-14).
- The wording shows God’s sovereignty over human history; He steps in at a precise, pre-appointed moment (Acts 17:26).
the God of heaven will set up a kingdom- The initiative is entirely divine; no human revolution births this realm (Psalm 103:19).
- Jesus announced its arrival in His first coming (“The time is fulfilled,”Mark 1:15), and He will consummate it at His second (Luke 1:32-33;Revelation 11:15).
- Because God creates it, the kingdom carries His character—holy, righteous, and unassailable (Psalm 145:13).
that will never be destroyed- Unlike every earthly empire, God’s kingdom is indestructible (Isaiah 9:7).
-Hebrews 12:28 calls it “a kingdom that cannot be shaken,” highlighting its permanence amid the collapse of worldly systems.
- Its durability rests on Christ, “the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).
nor will it be left to another people- No succeeding nation will inherit or modify this kingdom; it remains forever under God’s direct rule (Daniel 7:27).
- Citizens are those redeemed by Christ, “a chosen people” who reign with Him (1 Peter 2:9;Revelation 5:9-10).
- Eternal security is guaranteed—no coup, no transfer, no loss (John 10:28-29).
It will shatter all these kingdoms- God’s kingdom confronts and overthrows every human power opposed to Him (Psalm 2:8-9).
- At Christ’s return, He strikes the nations “with a rod of iron” (Revelation 19:15).
- Jesus applied this imagery to Himself as the stone that crushes the statue (Matthew 21:44).
and bring them to an end- The final victory eliminates rebellion permanently (1 Corinthians 15:24-25).
- Prophecies predict the fall of all godless rule: “The nation and the kingdom that will not serve You shall perish” (Isaiah 60:12).
-Revelation 17:14 pictures the decisive battle: earthly kings make war against the Lamb, but He triumphs.
but will itself stand forever- The kingdom’s endurance is limitless—“His dominion is an everlasting dominion” (Daniel 7:14).
-Psalm 145:13 affirms, “Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and Your dominion endures through all generations.”
- Believers share in this eternity, seated with Christ “far above all rule and authority… not only in this age but also in the one to come” (Ephesians 1:21-22).
summaryDaniel 2:44 promises a literal future in which God personally establishes an indestructible, everlasting kingdom ruled by Christ. It arises at the climax of human history, crushes every opposing power, and remains forever in the hands of God’s redeemed people. Earthly empires rise and fall, but God’s kingdom endures unchallenged, secure, and eternal.
(44)
In the days of these kings.--Yet no kings have been mentioned hitherto. They must therefore correspond to the toes of the image. (Comp.
Daniel 7:24.) It appears therefore that while this fourth kingdom still contrives to exist in some modified form, while its component parts are in a state of war and turmoil, the kingdom of God shall come. (Comp.
Daniel 7:25-27.)
God of heaven.--(SeeDaniel 2:18).
Verses 44, 45. -
And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never he 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 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 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. The Greek versions differ from the Massoretic text only in the order in which the materials of the statue arc recorded. These are arranged in the reverse order in which they are first mentioned, that is to say, we have first the clay, then the iron, and so on, to the gold. This is the order followed by Jerome. On the other hand, the Peshitta follows the Massoretic order. The reason for the order adopted in the Septuagint. Theodotion, and the Vulgate is evidently a symmetrical one, and therefore more likely to be the result of emendation than the somewhat haphazard order of the received text. It is, however, not impossible that the similarity of sound has led to
haspa, "clay," being brought out of its proper place at the beginning of the list and placed in juxtaposition with
kaspa, "silver." Ewald thinks that the order of the Greek versions is to be preferred. Professor Bevan is doubtful, and refers to the order of the metals in
Daniel 5:4, which begins with "gold" and ends with "stone."
In the days of these kings. This must refer to the kings who made up the last dynasty, especially the kings of the sub-dynasties represented by the ten toes. If the traditional interpretation is correct, these days are still future. It is not impossible that all the dynasties of the vision are implied, and that the kingdom of heaven is preparing during the whole period; only the natural meaning is that we have assumed.
Shall the God
of heaven set up a kingdom. It may be noted that, while in the rest of this chapter the Septuagint renders this title,
Κύριος τοῦ οὐρανοῦ or
Κὐριος ὁ ὕψιστος, here the rendering is,
ὁ Θεὸς τοῦ οὐρανοῦ. This is a clear statement of the Messianic hopes of the Jews on one side - a Messianic kingdom and Messianic times. This new kingdom is on a different plane from those that preceded it, which go to make up the mysterious image. It is explained to be from the direct interference of the God of heaven that this new kingdom is intruded upon history. When we look at the material, it is inferior to all that had gone before - inferior even to the fire-baked clay of the potter, which formed the toes of the image. This way of representing the Messianic kingdom would have appeared inadequate to an ordinary Jew. Waiving the fact that he regarded the Messianic empire to be another such as the empires of Assyria and Babylonia, only greater, the Jew would certainly have declared that the Messianic kingdom of heaven was a precious stone, not an ordinary piece of rock that goes to build up the framework of the mountains. It is impossible to deny that it is strange that the symbol should be thus a less precious material than even that of the lowest and weakest kingdom of the worldly system of dynasties. When we look at a metal, how homogeneous it is! With rocks, again, begins individualism. The more precious metals, with their extreme ductility, seem to be further removed from this individualism than the baser, such as copper and iron, and clay is still less removed than iron. But simple rock is furthest removed of all from metallic homogeneousness: the grains that compose it, unlike the chemical atoms of the metal, are visible to the naked eye. The process of degradation, which had proceeded through kingdom after kingdom, had now reached its lowest point. Wherever the setting up of this Messianic kingdom is placed, whenever it is held as occurring, it is certain it fits most naturally the Christian Church. The old civilization, represented by the Assyrian monarchy, had only one free man in the state, and that was the king. The Persians had nobles whose power rendered the king's supremacy less absolute than it had been in the Assyrian days. In the days of Greek and Roman supremacy the freedom of citizenship was, even in the republics, possessed only by a few, the rest were slaves. Still, the freedom was much more widely spread than in the Persian and Assyrian monarchies; only the Church, the kingdom of heaven, made of slaves citizens. It is the very acme of individualism. Looked at from without, the kingdom of heaven was a thing to be despised - a thing for freedmen and slaves, for poor workmen and peasants. In the Assyrian form of government the king was the state;
so the royal metal, gold, is used. In the Persian the nobles rule; so we have silver. In Greece it is the free citizens, therefore the artistic but less noble metal, copper, or, perhaps, its composite form as bronze, is used. In Rome, in imperial times, it is the soldiery, and therefore iron is the metal that symbolizes them. Shall we step over the intervening centuries of retrogression, and see in the clay the modern mercantile and manufacturing interests? To the ordinary eye of the world, there is a progressive degeneracy here. The lowest point is reached; not even the rich, not to speak of the noble and learned, but the poor and the ignorant, form the kingdom. Another contrast in the symbol is that these metallic empires remained stationary; they reached a limit, then could go no further - not growth, but stationariness, is represented by their symbol; but this stone cut out of the mountain "grows," and ceases not till it has filled the earth. Further, the kingdoms which went to build up the dream-statue endure only for a time; this rock-built kingdom is an ever-lasting kingdom. It is not limited either in extent or duration. This, again, suits only the Church of Christ; fitted and intended to fill the earth, it also has an unending duration. The world itself may end, but the Church does not. We do not mean to assert that Daniel foresaw this distinctly; the very idea of the prophetic office implied that the speaker often did not know the full import of his own words.
It shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms,
and it shall stand for ever. The silent, disruptive influence of Christianity is exhibited in regard to slavery, which was the foundation of the ancient state. Without opposing slavery, to appearance, it laid down principles which rendered slavery impossible. The supreme dignity it gives to the individual, as bearing the image of God, affirms the claims of democracy, and so affirms them that the modern state must disappear.
Forasmuch as thou sawest the stone teas cut out of the mountain without hands. Nothing could be more silent or unobserved by the men of the world, or more unlikely to form the beginning of a new world-power than Christianity. If Judaism was regarded as "the mountain of the Lord's house," then this new kingdom was cut from it, as Christianity was from Judaism.
And that it brake, etc. The reason why Nebuchadnezzar had seen all this - the growth of this kingdom, the way it destroyed all other kingdoms - was now to be made known.
The great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter; or, as it ought to be rendered,
a great god. The word, as observed by Professor Bevan, is not in the
status emphaticus; see
Ezra 5:8,
אלחא רבא (
elaha rabba). Daniel thus recognizes the fact that, to his heathen master, all that in the first instance he can convey to him
- the only idea he can give him - of the greatness of Jehovah is that he is very great, not that he is the solely Great One in the universe (see Behrmann). Zockler, Ewald, Keil, and Kranichfeld assert that the fact of the words "great god" (
elah tab) being in the absolute, not the emphatic state, is due to the elevation of pectic language. In the first place, this is not poetry, and, in the second place, neither of these writers gives any example of such a change of construction taking place.
Made known to the king. Why was it to "the king"? One objectsecured by making this revelation known to Nebuchadnezzar himself was that it secured its publicity. Had the vision been made known to Daniel himself, he could not have announced that the empire of Babylon should pass away, without running the risk of being condemned for treason. The king's action had made both dream and interpretation perforce public in a way they could not otherwise have been.
What shall come to pass hereafter; literally,
which shall be after these things. This does not mean in the immediate future, but after the state of matters at present existing - the domination of the world by great powers after the system of great world-empires has passed away, then will the Lord's kingdom be set up.
And the dream is certain,
and the interpretation thereof sure; or, literally, to bring out the emphasis,
certain - established -
it is
the dream,
and sure - faithful
- the interpretation. This is not a mere assertion of the fact that he, Daniel, had given an exact account of what the king had seen in his dream, and a correct interpretation of its import; of the first the king was the best judge. It is rather an argument: "The account of the dream is correct; from this learn that the interpretation is sure."
Parallel Commentaries ...
Hebrew
In the daysוּֽבְיוֹמֵיה֞וֹן(ū·ḇə·yō·w·mê·hō·wn)Conjunctive waw, Preposition-b | Noun - masculine plural construct
Strong's 3118:A dayof thoseאִנּ֗וּן(’in·nūn)Pronoun - third person masculine plural
Strong's 581:They, thosekings,מַלְכַיָּ֣א(mal·ḵay·yā)Noun - masculine plural determinate
Strong's 4430:A kingthe Godאֱלָ֨הּ(’ĕ·lāh)Noun - masculine singular construct
Strong's 426:Godof heavenשְׁמַיָּ֤א(šə·may·yā)Noun - mdd
Strong's 8065:The skywill set upיְקִים֩(yə·qîm)Verb - Hifil - Imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 6966:To arise, standa kingdomמַלְכוּ֙(mal·ḵū)Noun - feminine singular
Strong's 4437:Royalty, reign, kingdomthatדִּ֧י(dî)Pronoun - relative
Strong's 1768:Who, which, that, becausewill neverלְעָלְמִין֙(lə·‘ā·lə·mîn)Preposition-l | Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 5957:Remote time, the future, past, foreverbe destroyed,תִתְחַבַּ֔ל(ṯiṯ·ḥab·bal)Verb - Hitpael - Imperfect - third person feminine singular
Strong's 2255:To destroy, hurtand this kingdomוּמַ֨לְכוּתָ֔ה(ū·mal·ḵū·ṯāh)Conjunctive waw | Noun - feminine singular determinate
Strong's 4437:Royalty, reign, kingdomwill notלָ֣א(lā)Adverb - Negative particle
Strong's 3809:Not, nobe leftתִשְׁתְּבִ֑ק(ṯiš·tə·ḇiq)Verb - Hitpael - Imperfect - third person feminine singular
Strong's 7662:To quit, allow to remainto anotherאָחֳרָ֖ן(’ā·ḥo·rān)Adjective - masculine singular
Strong's 321:Anotherpeople.לְעַ֥ם(lə·‘am)Preposition-l | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 5972:A people, a tribe, troops, attendants, a flockIt will shatterתַּדִּ֤ק(tad·diq)Verb - Hifil - Imperfect - third person feminine singular
Strong's 1855:To be shattered, fall to piecesallכָּל־(kāl-)Noun - masculine singular construct
Strong's 3606:The whole, all, any, everytheseאִלֵּ֣ין(’il·lên)Pronoun - common plural
Strong's 459:Thesekingdomsמַלְכְוָתָ֔א(mal·ḵə·wā·ṯā)Noun - feminine plural determinate
Strong's 4437:Royalty, reign, kingdomand bring them to an end,וְתָסֵיף֙(wə·ṯā·sêp̄)Conjunctive waw | Verb - Hifil - Conjunctive imperfect - third person feminine singular
Strong's 5487:To come to an endbut will itself standתְּק֥וּם(tə·qūm)Verb - Qal - Imperfect - third person feminine singular
Strong's 6966:To arise, standforever.לְעָלְמַיָּֽא׃(lə·‘ā·lə·may·yā)Preposition-l | Noun - masculine plural determinate
Strong's 5957:Remote time, the future, past, forever
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OT Prophets: Daniel 2:44 In the days of those kings shall (Dan. Da Dn) 
