40 Bible Verses about empires

Your territorial border will extend from the wilderness to the Lebanon Mountains, to the river that great River Euphrates all the land of the Hittites as far as the Mediterranean Sea where the sun sets.

Now since Ephron the Hittite had taken a seat there among the Hittites, he responded publicly to Abraham where the Hittites and everyone who was entering the gate of his city could hear him:

In his last words, Jacob issued this set of instructions to them all: "I'm about to join our ancestors. Bury me alongside my ancestors in the cave in the field that used to belong to Ephron the Hittite. It's the cave in the field near Mamre at Machpelah in the land of Canaan that Abraham bought to serve as a cemetery.

they carried him to the territory of Canaan and buried him in the cave in Machpelah field near Mamre that Abraham had purchased as a cemetery from Ephron the Hittite.

David sent word to inquire about her, and someone told him, "This is Eliam's daughter Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite, isn't it?" So David sent some messengers, took her from her home, and she went to him, and he had sex with her. (She had been consecrating herself following her menstrual separation.) Then she returned to her home. The woman conceived, and she sent this message to David: "I'm pregnant."read more.
So David summoned Joab, and told him, "Send me Uriah the Hittite." So Joab sent Uriah to David. When Uriah arrived, David inquired about how Joab was doing, how the army was doing, and how the war was progressing. Then David told Uriah, "Go on down to your house and relax a while." So Uriah left the king's palace, and the king sent a gift along after him. But Uriah spent the night sleeping in the alcove of the king's palace in the company of all his master's staff members. He refused to go down to his own home. When David was told that Uriah hadn't gone home the previous night, he quizzed him, "You just arrived from a long journey, so why didn't you go down to your own house?" Uriah replied, "The ark, along with Israel and Judah, are encamped in tents, while my commanding officer Joab and my master's staff members are camping out in the open fields. Should I go home, eat, drink, and have sex with my wife? Not on your life! I won't do something like this, will I?" Then David invited Uriah, "Stay here today, and tomorrow I'll send you back." So Uriah remained in Jerusalem all that day and the next. Then at David's invitation, he and Uriah dined and drank wine together, and David got him drunk. Later that evening, Uriah went out to lie on a couch in the company of his lord's servants, and he did not go down to his house. The next morning, David sent a message to Joab that Uriah took with him in his hand. In the message, he wrote: "Assign Uriah to the most difficult fighting at the battle front, and then withdraw from him so that he will be struck down and killed." So as Joab began to attack the city, he assigned Uriah to a place where he knew valiant men would be stationed. When the men of the city came out to fight Joab, some of David's army staff members fell, and Uriah the Hittite died, too. Then Joab sent word to David about everything that had happened at the battle. He instructed the courier, "When you have finished conveying all the news about the battle to the king, if the king starts to get angry and asks you, "Why did you get so near the city to fight? Didn't you know they would shoot from the wall? Who killed Jerubbesheth's son Abimelech? Didn't a woman kill him by throwing an upper millstone on him from the wall at Thebez? Why did you go so close to the wall?' then tell him, "Your servant Uriah the Hittite also died.'" So the messenger left Joab, set out for Jerusalem, and disclosed to David everything that Joab had sent him to say. The messenger told David, "The men surprised us and attacked us in the field, but we drove them back to the entrance of the city gate. Then the archers shot at your servants from the wall. Some of the king's staff members are dead, and your servant Uriah the Hittite has died as well."

There was a famine in the land, so Abram went down to Egypt to live because the famine was so severe.

Now the time that the Israelis lived in Egypt was 430 years. At the end of 430 years, to the very day, all the tribal divisions of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt.

tell him, "We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, but the LORD brought us out of Egypt with great power.

Some time after all of this, after Josiah had finished preparing the Temple, King Neco of Egypt invaded Carchemish on the Euphrates River, and Josiah went out to fight him.

after which the king of Egypt dethroned him and imposed a fine on the land of 100 talents of silver and one talent of gold.

Later on, King Pul of Aram attacked the land, and Menahem paid Pul 1,000 silver talents so Pul would join forces with Menahem to secure his hold on the kingdom. Menahem exacted the money from all of Israel's powerful and wealthy men, 50 shekels from each, to pay the king of Aram. As a result, the king of Aram retreated and did not remain there in the land. The rest of Menahem's activities, including everything that he did, are recorded in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel, are they not?

So Ahaz sent envoys to Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria, to tell him, "I am your servant and son. Save me from the king of Aram and the king of Israel, who are attacking me." Then Ahaz took the silver and gold that was in the LORD's Temple and in the palace treasuries and sent them as a gift to the king of Assyria, so the king of Assyria listened to Ahaz. He attacked Damascus, captured it, sent its people away into exile to Kir, and executed Rezin.read more.
King Ahaz traveled to Damascus and met with King Tiglath-pileser of Assyria, where he observed the altar at Damascus. So King Ahaz sent a set of construction patterns of this altar to Uriah the priest. Uriah the priest built an altar, following the plans that King Ahaz had sent him from Damascus and finishing the altar before King Ahaz returned from Damascus. When the king returned from Damascus, as soon as he saw the altar, he approached it and offered sacrifices on it. He presented a burnt offering, a meat offering, poured out a drink offering, and sprinkled the blood of a peace offering on his altar. Then he took the bronze altar that stood in the LORD's presence from in front of the Temple, moved it to the north side of his altar, and issued these orders to Uriah the priest: "Burn the morning burnt offering, the evening grain offering, the king's burnt offering and grain offering, the whole burnt offering, the grain offering, and the drink offering on behalf of all the people of the land on the large altar. And sprinkle all the blood from the burnt offering and from the sacrifice. But I will use the bronze altar to ask God questions." So Uriah the priest did precisely what King Ahaz ordered. Later, King Ahaz ordered the side panels removed from the bases, along with the washing bowls that had stood on top of the bases. He also removed the large bowl that was called the Sea from on top of the bronze bulls that supported it, and put it on a stone base. Then Ahaz removed the covered walkway for use on the Sabbath that they had built in the Temple. Because of the king of Assyria, he also removed the outside entrance from the LORD's Temple that had been built exclusively for the king.

King Shalmaneser of Assyria attacked him, and Hoshea became his servant and paid tribute to him. But the king of Assyria uncovered a conspiracy involving Hoshea, who had sent envoys to King So of Egypt and stopped offering tribute to the king of Assyria, as he had done annually. As a result, the king of Assyria placed him under arrest and sent him to prison. After this, the king of Assyria invaded the entire land, approached Samaria, and began a three year siege. read more.
As a result, during the ninth year of the reign of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and took the Israelis off to Assyria, placing them in Halah, along the Habor River in Gozan, and in cities ruled by the Medes.

After all of these acts of faithfulness occurred, King Sennacherib of Assyria came, invaded Judah, and laid siege to the fortified cities, thinking to conquer them for himself. As soon as Hezekiah learned that Sennacherib had arrived and had determined to attack Jerusalem, he developed a plan with his commanders and his elite forces to cut off the water supply from the springs that were outside the city, and they helped him to carry it out. read more.
Many people gathered together and plugged up all the springs, along with the stream that flowed through the region. They were thinking to themselves, "Why should the Assyrian kings invade and discover an abundant water supply?" Hezekiah took courage and rebuilt all of the walls that had been broken down. Then he erected watch towers on them, and added another external wall. He fortified the terrace ramparts in the City of David and prepared a large number of weapons and shields. He appointed military officers to take charge of the people, who gathered them together in the square near the city gate and spoke to them encouragingly, "Be strong and courageous. Don't be afraid or disheartened because of the king of Assyria or because of the army that accompanies him, because the one who is with us is greater than the one with him. He only has the strength of his own flesh, but the LORD our God is with us to help us and to fight our battles." So the people were encouraged from what King Hezekiah of Judah told them. After this, King Sennacherib of Assyria sent his messengers to Jerusalem while he was in the middle of a vigorous attack on Lachish. They delivered this message to King Hezekiah of Judah and to all the people of Judah who had gathered in Jerusalem: "This is what King Sennacherib of Assyria says: "What are you leaning on that makes you stay behind while Jerusalem comes under siege? Isn't Hezekiah lying to you so he can hand you over to die by famine and thirst? After all, he's telling you "The LORD our God will deliver us from the king of Assyria's control." Isn't this the very same Hezekiah who removed this god's high places and altars? Isn't this the same Hezekiah who issued this order to Judah and Jerusalem: "You are to worship in front of only one altar and burn your sacrifices only on it."? Don't you know what my predecessors have done to all the other people in other lands? Were the gods of the people who lived in those lands able to deliver their countries out of my control? What god, out of all the gods of those nations that my predecessors utterly destroyed, has been able to deliver his people from my control or from the control of my predecessors? Now therefore, don't let Hezekiah lie to you or mislead you like this. Don't believe him, because no god of any nation has been able to deliver his people from my control or from the control of my predecessors. So how much less will your God deliver you from me?'" King Sennacherib's spokesmen said even worse things against the LORD God and against his servant Hezekiah. Sennacherib also wrote letters like this that insulted and slandered the LORD God of Israel: "Just as the gods of the nations in other lands haven't delivered their people from my control, so also the god of Hezekiah won't deliver his people from me!" His spokesmen shouted these things out with loud voices in the language of Judah to frighten and terrify the people of Jerusalem who were stationed on the city walls, to make it easier to conquer the city. In doing so, they spoke about the God of Jerusalem as if he were like the gods of the nations of the earth that are made by the hands of human beings. Meanwhile, King Hezekiah and Amoz's son Isaiah the prophet were praying about this and crying out to heaven. So the LORD sent an angel, who eliminated all of the elite forces, commanders, and officers within the encampment of the king of Assyria. As a result, he retreated to his own country, deeply ashamed and humiliated. When he visited the temple of his god, some of his sons killed him right there with swords. That's how the LORD delivered Hezekiah, as well as those who lived in Jerusalem, from Assyria's King Sennacherib and all his forces, and provided for all of their needs.

"The LORD will bring to you, to your people, and to your ancestor's house such a time as has never been since Ephraim broke away from Judah the king of Assyria will come. "At that time, the LORD will call for flies that will come from far away from the headwaters of Egypt's rivers and for bees that are in the land of Assyria. They will all come and settle in the steep ravines, in the rocky crevices, in all the thorn bushes, and in all the pastures. read more.
At that time, the LORD will hire a barber to come from beyond the Euphrates River that is, the king of Assyria and he will shave your heads, your leg hair, and your beards, too.

In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, King Sennacherib of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them. Then the king of Assyria sent his field commander, along with a very large army, from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. When the field commander stopped at the aqueduct at the Upper Pool on the road to Laundryman's Field, Hilkiah's son Eliakim, who was in charge of the palace, Shebna the secretary, and Asaph's son Joah, the recorder, went out to him.read more.
The field commander told them: "Tell Hezekiah, king of Judah, "This is what the mighty king, the king of Assyria, has to say: What is this "guarantee" that makes you yourself rely on it? Do you really think that guarantees alone can withstand strategy and military strength? On whom are you now depending, that you're rebelling against me? Take note: you're relying on Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff, which pierces the palm of anyone who leans on it. This is what Pharaoh king of Egypt is like to everybody who depends on him! But if you all say to me, "We are depending on the LORD our God" - isn't he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed, while he kept on telling Judah and Jerusalem, "You are to worship in front of this altar in Jerusalem'? Come now, all of you, make a bet with my master, the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses, if you can furnish riders for them! How, then, can you repulse even one officer from the least of my master's officials, when you are depending for yourselves on Egypt for chariots and horsemen? One other thing: have I really marched against this country to destroy it apart from the LORD's direction? The LORD himself ordered me, "March against this country to destroy it.'" Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah replied to him, "Please speak with your servants with us in Aramaic, since we understand it. Don't speak to us in Hebrew where the people sitting on the wall can hear." But the field commander asked, "Was it only to all of you and to your master that my master sent me to speak these things? Wasn't it also to the men sitting on the wall who, like you, will have to eat their own excrement and drink their own urine?" Then the commander stood up and shouted out loud in Hebrew: "Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria! This is what the king of Assyria says: "Don't let Hezekiah deceive you for he cannot save you! Don't let Hezekiah persuade you to rely on the LORD when he says, "The LORD will really deliver us!" and "This city will never be handed over to the king of Assyria!" Don't listen to Hezekiah, because this is what the king of Assyria says: "Make your peace with me and come out to me. Then everyone will eat from his own vine and from his own fig tree, and everyone will drink water from his own cistern, until I come and take you away to a land like your own land to a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards.' Be careful not to let Hezekiah mislead you when he says, "The LORD will save us." Has any god of any nation ever delivered his country from the king of Assyria?

"They will not return to the land of Egypt; instead, the Assyrian will be their king, because they kept refusing to repent.

Assyria won't save us; we won't be riding on horses, Nor will we be saying anymore to the work of our hands, "You are our God." Indeed, in you the orphan finds mercy.'

But because our predecessors provoked the God of Heaven to become angry, he handed them over to the control of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, the Chaldean who destroyed this Temple and transported the people to Babylon. "However, during King Cyrus' first year that same King Cyrus of Babylon issued a decree to reconstruct this Temple of God. He delivered into the care of Sheshbazzar (whom he appointed governor) the gold and silver utensils that Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the Jerusalem Temple and brought into the Babylonian temple.read more.
"And Cyrus told him, "Take these utensils, go to Jerusalem, and carry them to the Temple, after the Temple of God has been built in its appropriate place.' "Then this very same Sheshbazzar arrived and laid the foundations for the Temple of God in Jerusalem. Since that time until now the Temple has been under construction and is not yet completed." Accordingly, with your approval we suggest that a search be conducted within the king's treasury at Babylon to verify whether or not King Cyrus ever issued such a decree to reconstruct this Temple of God in Jerusalem. Then please notify us concerning the king's pleasure in this matter.

I found a register of the original inhabitants in which there was recorded a list of descendants of the province of Judah who returned from captivity, from those who had been exiled by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. They had come back to Jerusalem and to Judah, each one to his town.

There we sat down and cried by the rivers of Babylon as we remembered Zion.

At that time Merodach-baladan, the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah, when he heard he had been sick and had survived. Hezekiah was delighted with them, and showed them everything in his treasure-houses the silver, the gold, the spices, the precious oils, his entire armory, and everything found in his treasuries. There was nothing in his palace or in all his kingdom that Hezekiah did not show them. Then the prophet Isaiah came to King Hezekiah and asked him, "What did these men have to say? And from where did they come to you?" Hezekiah replied, "From a distant land they came to me from Babylon."read more.
"What did they see in your palace?" he asked. "They saw everything in my palace," Hezekiah replied. "There is nothing in my treasuries that I did not show them." Then Isaiah told Hezekiah, "Listen to this message from the LORD of the Heavenly Armies: "The days are surely coming when everything in your palace and all that your ancestors have stored up to this day will be carried off to Babylon. They will come in, and nothing will be left,' says the LORD. "Then some of your own sons, who will come from your loins, whom you will father, will be taken away to become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.'"

For this is what the LORD says: "Look, I'm going to make you a terror to yourself and to all your loved ones. They'll fall by the sword of their enemies, and your eyes will see it. I'll give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon. He will take them into exile to Babylon, and he will execute them with swords. I'll turn over all the wealth of this city, all its possessions, all its valuables, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah right into the hands of their enemies, and they'll plunder them, capture them, and take them to Babylon. You, Pashhur, and all those living in your house will go into captivity. You will go to Babylon and there you will die. There you and all your loved ones to whom you have falsely prophesied will be buried.'"

"Please inquire of the LORD on our behalf, because King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon is fighting against us. Perhaps the LORD will do some of his miraculous acts for us, and Nebuchadnezzar will depart from us." Jeremiah told them, "This is what you are to say to Zedekiah, "This is what the LORD God of Israel says: "I'm about to turn against you the weapons of war that are in your hands and with which you are fighting the king of Babylon and the Chaldeans who are besieging you outside the walls. I'll gather them into the center of this city. read more.
Because of my anger, wrath, and great fury, I'll fight against you myself with an outstretched hand and a strong arm. I'll strike down the residents of this city, both people and animals, and they'll die from a terrible plague. Afterwards," declares the LORD, "I'll give King Zedekiah of Judah, his officials, and the people those who are left in this city from the plague, the sword, and the famine into the control of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, right into the hand of their enemies and the hand of those who want to kill them. He'll execute them with swords and won't pity them. He won't spare them, nor will he have compassion on them."'

Now I've given all these lands to my servant, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and I've even given him the wild animals to serve him. All the nations will serve him, his son, and his grandson until his country's time also comes, and then many nations and great kings will use him as a slave. If a nation and kingdom does not serve him King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and does not put its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, I'll judge that nation with the sword, with famine, and with plague," declares the LORD, "until I've completely destroyed it by his hand. read more.
You aren't to listen to your prophets, your diviners, your dreamers, your soothsayers, and your sorcerers who say to you, "Don't serve the king of Babylon.' They're prophesying a lie to you in order to remove you far away from your land. I'll drive you out and you will perish. But I'll let the nation that brings its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serves him remain in its own land," declares the LORD, "and they'll work it and remain in it."'" I spoke to Zedekiah king of Judah using words like these: "Bring your neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon. Serve him and his people, and you will live! Why should you and your people die by the sword, by famine, and by plague as the LORD has decreed about the nation that does not serve the king of Babylon? Don't listen to the words of the prophets who say to you, "You won't serve the king of Babylon.' Indeed, they're prophesying a lie to you. For I didn't send them," declares the LORD, "and they're falsely prophesying in my name, so I will drive both you and the prophets who prophesy to you out of the land." Then I spoke to the priests and all of the people: "This is what the LORD says: "Don't listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you: "The vessels from the Temple are about to be returned from Babylon very soon now." Indeed, they're prophesying a lie to you. Don't listen to them! Serve the king of Babylon and you'll live. Why should this city become a ruin? If they're prophets, and if they have a message from the LORD, let them plead with the LORD of the Heavenly Armies so that the utensils that remain in the LORD's Temple, in the house of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem might not be taken to Babylon. For this is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies says about the pillars, the bronze sea, the stands, and the rest of the vessels that remain in this city that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon didn't take when he took Jehoiakim's son Jeconiah, king of Judah, and all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem from Jerusalem into exile to Babylon For this is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, the God of Israel says about the vessels that remain in the LORD's Temple, in the house of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem, "They'll go into Babylon and there they'll remain until the time I take note of them," declares the LORD. "Then I'll bring them up and return them to this place."'"

"For this is what the LORD says: "When Babylon's seventy years are completed, I'll take note of you and will fulfill my good promises to you by bringing you back to this place.

But Paul told the guards, "The magistrates have had us beaten publicly without a trial and have thrown us into jail, even though we are Roman citizens. Now are they going to throw us out secretly? Certainly not! Have them come and escort us out."

There he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla because Claudius had ordered all the Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to visit them,

After these things had happened, Paul decided to go through Macedonia and Achaia and then to go on to Jerusalem. "After I have gone there," he told them, "I must also see Rome."

But when they had tied him up with the straps, Paul asked the centurion who was standing there, "Is it legal for you to whip a Roman citizen who hasn't been condemned?"

That night the Lord stood near Paul and said, "Have courage! For just as you have testified about me in Jerusalem, you must testify in Rome, too."

I find that he has not done anything deserving of death. But since he has appealed to his Majesty, I have decided to send him.

When we came into Rome, Paul was allowed to live by himself with the soldier who was guarding him.

"During the reigns of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor its sovereignty left in the hands of another people. It will shatter and crush all of these kingdoms, and it will stand forever.

A message that Amoz's son Isaiah received about Babylon: "Raise a banner on a bare hilltop! Cry out loud to them! Give a wave of the hand, signaling for them to enter the gates of the nobles. I myself have commanded my consecrated ones; I have also summoned my warriors, those who rejoice in my triumph, to carry out my angry judgments.read more.
"Listen! There's a noise on the mountains like that of a great multitude! Listen! There's an uproar among the kingdoms, like that of nations massing together! The LORD of the Heavenly Armies is mustering an army for battle. They're coming from a faraway land, from the distant horizon the LORD and the weapons of his anger to destroy the entire land." Wail out loud, because the Day of the LORD is near. It will come like destruction from the Almighty! Because of this, every hand will go limp, and every man's courage will melt. They will be terrified; pain and anguish will seize them; they'll writhe like a woman in labor. They'll look aghast at one another; and their faces will be ablaze with fear. Watch out! The Day of the LORD is coming cruel, with wrath and fierce anger to turn the entire inhabited earth into a desolation and to annihilate sinners from it. For the stars of the heavens and their constellations won't shine their light; the sun will be dark when it rises, and the moon won't shine its light. I'll punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I'll put an end to the pomposity of the arrogant, and overthrow the insolence of tyrants. I'll make people scarcer than pure gold, and mankind rarer than gold from Ophir. Therefore I'll make the heavens tremble. The earth will shake from its place at the wrath of the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, at the time of his burning anger. They will be like a hunted gazelle, or like sheep with no one to gather them, each will turn to his own people, and each will flee to his own land. Whoever is captured will be thrust through, and whoever is caught will fall dead, killed by the sword. Their infants will be dashed to pieces before their eyes, and their houses will be looted, and their wives slept with. Watch out! I'm stirring up the Medes against them, who care nothing for silver and take no delight in gold. Their bows will dash the young men to pieces; they'll show no pity on those not yet born, and their eyes will not spare children. Babylon, that jewel of kingdoms, the splendor and pride of the Chaldeans, will be like Sodom and Gomorrah, when God overthrew them It will never be inhabited or lived in through all generations; no Bedouin will pitch his tent there; no shepherds will make their flocks lie down there. But desert beasts will lie down there, and their houses will be full of howling creatures; there owls will dwell, and goat-demons will dance there. Hyenas will howl in its strongholds, and jackals will make their dens in its citadels. Its time is close at hand, and its days will not be extended any further.

A voice says, "Cry out!" So I asked, "What am I to cry out?" "All humanity is grass, and all its loyalty is like the flowers of the field. Grass withers and flowers fade away when the LORD's breath blows on them; surely the people are like grass. Grass withers and flowers fade away, when the LORD's breath blows on them, but the word of our God will stand forever."

Babylon will become a heap of ruins, a refuge for jackals, a desolate place and an object of scorn. They'll roar together like young lions; they'll growl like lion cubs. When they're excited I'll serve them their banquet, and make them drunk until they're merry. They'll sleep forever and won't wake up," declares the LORD.read more.
"I'll bring them down like lambs for the slaughter, like rams with male goats.

"Your majesty, while you were watching, you observed an enormous statue. This magnificent statue stood before you with extraordinary brilliance. Its appearance was terrifying. That statue had a head made of pure gold, with its chest and arms made of silver, its abdomen and thighs made of bronze, its legs made of iron, and its feet made partly of iron and partly of clay.read more.
"As you were watching, a rock was quarried but not with human hands and it struck the iron and clay feet of the statue, breaking them to pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were broken in pieces together and became like chaff from a summer threshing floor that the breeze carries away without leaving a trace. Then the rock that struck the statue grew into a huge mountain and filled the entire earth. "This was the dream, and we'll now relate its meaning to the king. You, your majesty, king of kings to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, the strength, and the glory, so that wherever people, wild animals, or birds of the sky live, he has placed them under your control, giving you dominion over them all you're that head of gold. "After you, another kingdom will arise that is inferior to yours, and then a third kingdom of bronze will arise to rule all the earth. Then there will be a fourth kingdom, as strong as iron. Just as all things are broken to pieces and shattered by iron, so it will shatter and crush everything. "The feet and toes that you saw, made partly of potter's clay and partly of iron, represent a divided kingdom. It will still have the strength of iron, in that you saw iron mixed with clay. Just as their toes and feet are part iron and part clay, so will the kingdom be both strong and brittle. Just as you saw iron mixed with clay, so they will mix themselves with human offspring. Furthermore, they won't remain together, just as iron doesn't mix with clay. "During the reigns of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor its sovereignty left in the hands of another people. It will shatter and crush all of these kingdoms, and it will stand forever. Now, just as you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without human hands and that it crushed the iron, bronze, clay, silver, and gold to pieces so also the great God has revealed to the king what will take place after this. Your dream will come true, and its meaning will prove trustworthy."

Then another angel, a second one, followed him, saying, "Fallen! Babylon the Great has fallen! She has made all nations drink the wine, the wrath earned for her sexual sins."

After these things, I saw another angel coming down from heaven. He had great authority, and the earth was made bright by his splendor. He cried out in a powerful voice, "Fallen! Babylon the Great has fallen! She has become a home for demons. She is a prison for every unclean spirit, a prison for every unclean bird, and a prison for every unclean and hated beast. For all the nations have drunk from the wine of her sexual immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality with her. The world's businesses have become rich from her luxurious excesses."read more.
Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, "Come out of her, my people, so that you don't participate in her sins and also suffer from her diseases. For her sins are piled as high as heaven, and God has remembered her crimes. Do to her as she herself has done, and give her double for her deeds. Mix a double drink for her in the cup she mixed. Just as she glorified herself and lived in luxury, inflict on her just as much torture and misery. In her heart she says, "I am a queen on a throne, not a widow. I will never see misery.' For this reason, her diseases that result in death, misery, and famine will come in a single day. She will be burned up in a fire, because powerful is the Lord God who judges her."