Europe & the Feet of Iron & Clay
It is becoming increasingly obvious that we are now in the final stage of the fulfillment of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of the great image, the feet of iron mixed with clay out from which will soon come the ten toes (10 kings). However, the odd mixture of incompatible materials, the iron mixed with clay, has been a bit of a mystery until recently. At least one of the early Christian writers (Hippolytus “Treatise on Christ and Antichrist, 27) interpreted this mixture of iron and clay abstractly as totalitarianism and democracy. I have tentatively held this view for quite some time. However, as I continue to watch events unfold in Europe, I am convinced that a more concrete interpretation was intended. Here is the critical text from the Christian Standard Bible which differs somewhat from most other English versions:
Daniel 2:43 (CSB) 43 You saw the iron mixed with clay — the peoples will mix with one another but will not hold together, just as iron does not mix with fired clay.
This reading is slightly different than most other English translations, which read “they will mingle with the seed of men.”
The majority reading above is difficult in that it gives no antecedent for who “they” refers to and appears to distinguish between “the seed of men” and whoever or whatever the pronoun “they” refers to, thus (implying that “they” are not also “the seed of men”). I am not versed enough in Hebrew to know whether the CSB translation of the Hebrew is superior to the other translations. The CSB clearly has diverse people-groups mingling together but not adhering together, being incompatible for a civil society. The Septuagint agrees with the way the CSB translated the Hebrew.
Dan. 2:43 LXX-NETS 43 For you saw the iron mixed with earthenware. There will be commingling among [ἐν] the seed of humanity, and they will not hold together, this one with that one, just as iron does not mix with earthenware.”
The LXX reading, like the CSB, has diverse people groups commingling but not being compatible. It brings to mind God’s confounding the languages and separating the descendants of Noah into people-groups at the Tower of Babel. God Himself established the boundaries of the various language groups.
Deuteronomy 32:8 (ESV) 8 “When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God.” (See NET Bible commentary on this verse which shows why the reading “sons of God” in the Dead Sea Scrolls is the original reading against the Masoretic “sons of Israel” and the LXX “angels of God.”)
The iron mixing with clay intentionally reverses God’s appointment of specific areas for specific language groups by mass migration and co-mingling of people groups. This is the correct interpretation of the feet of iron mixed with clay.
This is a perfect description of what Europe has become, where foreigners (primarily Islamists) have been intentionally imported in mass into Europe as part of the globalist’s agenda (which is the modern version of the ‘Tower of Babel’). It is literally destroying European and British culture simply because those masses invading Europe have radically different ‘values’ than Europeans and Brittons. The co-mixing has been orchestrated intentionally by the billionaire globalists and ‘masters of the universe’ for their own financial gain. But this co-mixture is already beginning to show stress cracks and will soon completely break down as described by Daniel.
It should also be noted that the Satanic “woke” ideology of the globalists being forced upon the west has much more in common with the Islamists’ ‘moral ‘values’ (justified murder, rape, sodomy, theft, deceit, etc.) than with the historic ideology of the European nations based on the Judeo-Christian moral system. The Islamist invaders seem to be represented by the iron and the Europeans by the clay. The globalists are anti-Christ / anti-Christian and are seeking to destroy the Judeo-Christian moral foundation of western civilization for their own gain and power. Organized chaos is the goal, setting the stage for the ten kings to arise. No doubt they are already groomed and ready to assume power. This has all been planned; first create the massive problem, then offer the solution that the people will be forced to accept in desperation. It appears that the end of democracy in Europe is imminent.
Of course, the same globalists have been behind the same scheme in the USA. But it may be that God is orchestrating an intervention here. I am still cautiously optimistic that God is laying the groundwork and preparing a place of refuge for His people to escape what is about to occur (the 70th week) in just a few short years. Here, the left is in utter panic mode, as manifested by the clearly organized and well-funded chaos in Minneapolis and other cities. This is the manifestation of a spiritual war between light and darkness. Even Barak Obama is now revealing his true role in the globalist conspiracy to overthrow the United States through organized chaos. He is now publicly encouraging the lawless ‘resistance’ in Minneapolis. All of this is demonic.
In Europe, things are far too entrenched to stop the fulfillment of Nebuchadnezzar’s prophetic dream. I feel sorry for true believers who live there. Yet, at the right time God has promised to provide the way of escape, a second exodus just as He parted the Red Sea at precisely the right moment (Micah 7:14-16), for those who remain faithful to His Word and who “wait on the Lord,” (Matt. 24:13; Luke 17:22-37; Luke 21:36; Rev. 7:14; Rev. 12:6,14-16).
2 thoughts on “Europe & the Feet of Iron & Clay”
I actually spent a couple nights translating Daniel 2:31-45 straight from the Aramaic a year or two back, and here’s what I came up with for verse 43:
“That you saw, the iron mixed with clay of the mud: joined, they will be, in [or “with”, or “among”] seed of the mortal human (the word rendered “men” in the 1995 NASB is אֵנֶשׁ (H606), the Aramaic equivalent of the Hebrew word אֱנוֹשׁ (H582), the root of the name “Enosh”, which properly means “mortal man” and connotes man/humanity in a less dignified sense – the normal Hebrew word for “human/ity” is אָדָם (H120), the root of the name “Adam”); but they will not cling, this with that, even as the iron joins not itself with the clay.”
The Aramaic preposition בִּ has the same range of meanings as its Hebrew counterpart and the Greek ἐν, so “among” would be a viable alternative to “in” or “with”. And now that I look at the Aramaic text again, “joined” is a participle, “they will be” is a verb, and “seed of the mortal human” is the noun construct chain following “they will be”. In Hebrew and Aramaic action statements, the verb usually goes before the subject, so this would imply that “seed of the mortal human” IS INDEED the “they” of “they will be”. Furthermore, while the participle for “joined” is passive, it uses the Hithpaal stem, which can be passive OR reflexive. And the use of “even as” and the final verb “joins itself” being an active participle with the Hithpaal stem tells us that action’s DEFINITELY reflexive. Taken altogether, it seems to me that “seed of the mortal human” is both doing the joining and being joined–consistent with the CSB and LXX renderings, but not the majority rendering.
Thanks for the opportunity to let iron sharpen iron!
Karl,
Thanks for that clarification of the Aramaic. IMO, there is no doubt that the meaning of the mixture of iron and clay is the commingling of diverse people groups whom God separated when confounding the languages at the Tower of Babel.