¹⁷ He said, ‘The four great animals are four kingdoms. Those four kingdoms will come from the earth. ¹⁸ But the people who belong to the Most High God will receive the power to rule. And they will have the power to rule forever. They will have it from now on.’

¹⁹ “Then I wanted to know what the fourth animal meant. It was different from all the other animals. It was very terrible. It had iron teeth and bronze claws. It was the animal that crushed and ate what it killed. And it walked on whatever was left.