It was an image with a head of gold, shoulders of silver,
thighs of brass, legs of iron, feet partly of iron, partly of clay, all
overthrown together by a stone cut out without hands from a mountain.
Great Babylon was the head, soon to give way to the less splendid
Persian power, then again to the Greek dominion, and lastly to the iron
rule of Rome, which would grow weak and mixed with miry clay, till at
last all would be overthrown and subdued by the Stone which the builders
rejected.
After this wonderful interpretation, Daniel became a chief ruler under
Nebuchadnezzar, and even in his youth, his name was a very proverb for
wisdom and holiness. He judged among the Jews, and confuted the two
wicked elders who sought to bring about the death of Susanna; and he
probably stood too high to be accused, when, soon after the taking of
Zedekiah, Nebuchadnezzar threw the three other princes into the fiery
furnace, for refusing to bow down to the golden image on the plains of
Dura. Then the fiery blast was to them as a moist whistling wind, and
even the tyrant beheld the Form like the Son of God, walking with them
in the midst of the flame, while they sung that hymn which calls every
created thing to praise the Lord.
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