while saying of Cyrus, “He is My shepherd, and he shall fulfill all My purpose” while saying to Jerusalem, “You will be built” and to the Temple, “Your foundation will be laid.”
“Then he said: ‘Do you understand why I have come to you? Now I must return to fight against the prince of Persia! When I go, behold, the prince of Greece will come.
Wherever mankind, beasts of the field, and fowls of the heaven dwell, He has given them into your hand, and made you ruler over them all. You are the head of gold.
Finally, there will be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron—for iron shatters and breaks everything—and just as iron smashes everything, so will it shatter and crush all the others.
“Thus he explained: ‘The fourth beast will be a fourth kingdom on earth that will be different from all the other kingdoms. It will devour the whole earth, and trample it and crush it.
The chariot with the black horses is going to the land of the north and the white ones have gone out after them, but the dappled ones have gone out to the land of the south.”