Daniel 2:42

Christian Standard Bible ®

and that the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly fired clay—part of the kingdom will be strong, and part will be brittle.

Parallel Translations

Hebrew Names Version
As the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.

King James Version
And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.

English Standard Version
And as the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly brittle.

New American Standard Bible
"And just as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of pottery, so some of the kingdom will be strong, and part of it will be fragile.

New Century Version
The toes of the statue were partly iron and partly clay. So the fourth kingdom will be partly strong like iron and partly breakable like clay.

Amplified Bible
"As the [ten] toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so some of the kingdom will be strong, and another part of it will be brittle.

Geneva Bible (1587)
And as the toes of the feete were parte of yron, and parte of clay, so shall the kingdome be partly strong, and partly broken.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"As the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of pottery, so some of the kingdom will be strong and part of it will be brittle.

Berean Standard Bible
And as the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly clay, so this kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle.

Complete Jewish Bible
Just as the toes of the feet were part iron and part clay, this kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle.

Darby Translation
And [as] the toes of the feet were part of iron and part of clay, the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile.

Easy-to-Read Version
The toes of the statue were partly iron and partly clay. So the fourth kingdom will be partly strong like iron and partly weak like clay.

George Lamsa Translation
And as for the toes of the feet which you saw, part of iron and part of clay, so some parts of the kingdom shall be strong and some parts weak.

Good News Translation
The toes—partly iron and partly clay—mean that part of the empire will be strong and part of it weak.

Lexham English Bible
And as the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly clay, so part of the kingdom will be strong and partly brittle.

Literal Translation
And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
The toes of the fete that were parte off yron and parte off claye, signifieeh: that it shalbe a kyngdome partely stronge and partely weake.

American Standard Version
And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.

Bible in Basic English
And as the toes of the feet were in part of iron and in part of earth, so part of the kingdom will be strong and part of it will readily be broken.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so part of the kingdom shall be strong, and part thereof broken.

King James Version (1611)
And as the toes of the feete were part of yron, and part of clay; so the kingdome shall be partly strong, and partly broken.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
And [as] the toes of the feete [were] part of iron and part of clay: [so] shal the kingdome be part strong and part broken.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And whereas the toes of the feet were part of iron and part of earthenware, part of the kingdom shall be strong, and part of it shall be broken.

English Revised Version
And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.

World English Bible
As the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
and the toos of the feet in parti of irun, and in parti of erthe, in parti the rewme schal be sad, and in parti to-brokun.

Update Bible Version
And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.

Webster's Bible Translation
And [as] the toes of the feet [were] part of iron, and part of clay, [so] the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.

New English Translation
In that the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, the latter stages of this kingdom will be partly strong and partly fragile.

New King James Version
And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile.

New Living Translation
But while some parts of it will be as strong as iron, other parts will be as weak as clay.

New Life Bible
As the toes of the feet were made of part iron and part clay, so some of the nation will be strong and part of it will be weak.

New Revised Standard
As the toes of the feet were part iron and part clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly brittle.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
and, the toes of the feet, part of them, iron, and, part, of clay, - some part of the kingdom, shall be strong, but, a part thereof, shall be brittle;

Douay-Rheims Bible
And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay: the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.

Revised Standard Version
And as the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly brittle.

Young's Literal Translation
As to the toes of the feet, part of them iron, and part of them clay: some part of the kingdom is strong, and some part of it is brittle.

Contextual Overview

³¹“Your Majesty, as you were watching, suddenly a colossal statue appeared. That statue, tall and dazzling, was standing in front of you, and its appearance was terrifying. ³²The head of the statue was pure gold, its chest and arms were silver, its stomach and thighs were bronze, ³³its legs were iron, and its feet were partly iron and partly fired clay. ³⁴As you were watching, a stone broke off without a hand touching it, struck the statue on its feet of iron and fired clay, and crushed them. ³⁵Then the iron, the fired clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were shattered and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors. The wind carried them away, and not a trace of them could be 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 the king its interpretation. ³⁷Your Majesty, you are king of kings. The God of the heavens has given you sovereignty, power, strength, and glory. ³⁸Wherever people live—or wild animals, or birds of the sky—he has handed them over to you and made you ruler over them all. You are the head of gold. ³⁹“After you, there will arise another kingdom, inferior to yours, and then another, a third kingdom, of bronze, which will rule the whole earth. ⁴⁰A fourth kingdom will be as strong as iron; for iron crushes and shatters everything, and like iron that smashes, it will crush and smash all the others.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

the toes: Daniel 7:24, Revelation 13:1

broken: or, brittle

Reciprocal: Daniel 7:7 - and it had ten Revelation 12:3 - ten

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And as the toes of the feet were part of iron and part of clay,.... Or some of them of iron, and so were strong and powerful, as some of these kingdoms were; and some of clay, and so were weak and easily crushed, and did not stand long:

so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken; this is not unfitly interpreted by some of the two fold power which has prevailed in these ten kingdoms, through the policy of the pope of Rome, the secular and ecclesiastic power; the latter often encroaching upon and prevailing over the other, which has tended to the weakening of these states.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And as the toes of the feet were part of iron and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken - Margin, “brittle.” The margin is the more correct rendering of the Chaldee word (תבירה t^ebı̂yrâh). It means “frail, fragile” - easily broken, but not necessarily that it was actually broken. That did not occur until the stone cut out of the mountain impinged on it. It has been commonly supposed (comp. Newton “on the Prophecies”), that the ten toes on the feet refer to the ten kingdoms into which the Roman empire was ultimately broken up, corresponding with the ten horns seen in the vision of Daniel, in Daniel 7:7. In regard to the fact that the Roman empire was ultimately broken up into ten such kingdoms, see the extended notes at Daniel 7:24. The thing which struck the monarch in the vision, and Daniel in the interpretation, as remarkable, was that the feet and toes “were composed partly of iron and partly of clay.”

In the upper portion of the image there had been uniformity in the different parts, and had been no intermingling of metals. Here a new feature was seen - not only that a new metal was employed, but that there was intermingled with that, in the same portion of the image, a different substance, and one that had no affinity with the iron, and that could never be made to blend with it. In the latter part of this verse, the original word for “partly” is not the same in each clause. In the former it is מן־קצת min-q^etsâth - properly “from the end,” sc., of the kingdom. Compare Daniel 12:13, “At the end of the days;” Daniel 1:15, “At the end of ten days;” and Daniel 2:5, Daniel 2:18. The word “might” be employed to denote the “end” or “extremity” of anything, e. g., in respect to “time,” and some have supposed that there is a reference here to the later periods of the Roman empire. See Poole’s “Synopsis.”

But the word is also used to denote “the sum,” or “the whole number;” and then the phrase is equivalent to “a part - as” e. g., in the phrase האלהים בית כלי מקצת miq^etsât k^elēy bēyth hâ'elohı̂ym - from the sum of the vessels of the house of God” Daniel 1:2; that is, a portion of the whole number, or a part. Compare Nehemiah 7:70, “from the sum of the heads of the fathers;” that is, a part of them. In the latter part of the clause it is מנת mı̂nnâh - “from it;” that is, a part of it; partly. The entire phrase means that one part of the whole would be strong, and one part would be fragile. The reference is not to the “time” when this would occur, but to the “fact” that it would be so. The idea in this verse does not vary materially from that in the former, except that in that, the prominent thought is, that there would be “strength” in the kingdom: in this, the idea is, that while there would be strength in the kingdom, there would be also the elements of weakness.