Daniel 2:1 (TS2009)
And in the second year of the reign of Nebukadnetstsar, Nebukadnetstsar had dreams. And his spirit was so troubled that his sleep left him.

The time in history is around 600 BC. The dream of Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar is a prophecy about the empires that come after the Babylonian Empire. God punished His people who kept turning their backs on Him. Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem and burned the temple in 586 BC (Jeremiah 52). Then the Babylonian captivity began which would last for 70 years (Jeremiah 29:10). Persian king Cyrus the Great allowed the Jews to return in 539 BC shortly after he conquered Babylon (Ezra 1:1-4). A little later the construction of the second temple was started. In 70 AD the Second Temple was destroyed by the Romans at the siege of Jerusalem.



See Daniel 2:2-30. King Nebuchadnezzar wants his dream interpreted and calls for all the magicians, astrologers, practisers of witchcraft and Chaldeans. But no human being can predict and interpret dreams. Therefore they try to deceive the king by asking for the dream so they can then make up an interpretation. This angers Nebuchadnezzar and he eventually orders the killing of all the wise ones of Babylon. When Daniel hears this he says he will interpret the dream in order to save his life and that of the king's people. He prays to God and receives the dream and its interpretation...

Daniel 2:31-33 (TS2009)
You, O sovereign, were looking on, and saw a great image! This great image, and its brightness excellent, was standing before you, and its form was awesome. This image’s head was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay.

The image represents an idol. In Daniel 3 king Nebuchadnezzar ordered all subjects to worship his golden idol and his false gods. One of God's ten commandments is to not make any idols (Exodus 20:4, Deuteronomy 4:16, Deuteronomy 5:8). This image is in the shape of a man. There are five divisions: the head, the chest and arms, the belly and thighs, the legs, and the feet.

Daniel 2:34-35 (TS2009)
You were looking on, until a stone was cut out without hands, and it smote the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed together, and became like chaff from the summer threshing-floors. And the wind took them away so that no trace of them was found. And the stone that smote the image became a great mountain and filled all the earth.

The stone is cut out without hands. This means that the destruction of the image is not by human hands or human power, but it is by the power of God (Ephesians 1:19-23). The stone symbolizes the Son of God (Psalm 118:22, Matthew 21:42, 1 Corinthians 10:4) who will destroy the final global empire and replace it with the Kingdom of God (Psalms 48:1-6). That the stone destroyed the feet first indicates that these feet symbolize the final global empire and that its destruction also means the end of Satan's empires on earth.

Daniel 2:36-40 (TS2009)
This is the dream, and its interpretation we declare before the sovereign. You, O sovereign, are a sovereign of sovereigns. For the Elah of the heavens has given you a reign, power, and strength, and preciousness, and wherever the children of men dwell, or the beasts of the field and the birds of the heavens, He has given them into your hand, and has made you ruler over them all. You are the head of gold. And after you rises up another reign lower than yours, and another third reign of bronze that rules over all the earth. And the fourth reign is as strong as iron, because iron crushes and shatters all. So, like iron that breaks in pieces, it crushes and breaks all these.

The first empire is the Babylonian Empire which ruled at the time of this prophecy. As the head of the complete image it likely symbolizes the great influence it had on all subsequent empires. Nebuchadnezzar is called king of kings and holds a special place before God. He played a defining role in the Babylonian captivity of God's people. He allowed the kingdom of Judah, including Jerusalem, to remain inside the Babylonian Empire. But after Judean king Jehoiakim revolted against Nebuchadnezzar the Babylonian king destroyed Jerusalem and its temple. Nebuchadnezzar is the only foreign king who authored a chapter in the Scriptures, namely Daniel 4.
The second empire is the Achaemenid or Medo-Persian Empire which conquered the Babylonian Empire. The two arms may symbolize the Medes who formed an alliance with the more powerful Persians.
The third empire is the Greek Empire founded by Alexander the Great which conquered the Persian Empire.
The fourth empire is the Roman Empire which conquered the Greek Empire.
Each succeeding empire was of stronger metal, more powerful, but of lower value, less glamorous.

The phrase all the earth should be seen from the viewpoint of God's people. In the Old Testament it pointed initially to the land of Israel and later to all the lands were God's people dispersed after the breakup of the twelve tribes. Daniel is speaking to Nebuchadnezzar who is not from Israel and probably didn't have this understanding. It makes sense that for Nebuchadnezzar all the earth meant his whole empire, which contained all the descendents of the Israelites at that moment in time.

Daniel 2:41-43 (TS2009)
Yet, as you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, the reign is to be divided. But some of the strength of the iron is to be in it, because you saw the iron mixed with muddy clay. And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so the reign is partly strong and partly brittle. And as you saw iron mixed with muddy clay, they are mixing themselves with the seed of men, but they are not clinging to each other, even as iron does not mix with clay.

Ancient emires had an absolute human king, or lineage of kings, symbolized by each metal. The head of gold represents the king of the Babylonian Empire. The following three empires had an absolute king. This ended with the demise of the Roman Empire. The final global empire will not be like a traditional ancient empire with one absolute king or emperor. Unlike the legs, the feet do not consist of iron entirely, but of several pieces of iron mixed with clay, it will be led by multiple kings or leaders of multiple nations. That they are mixing themselves with the seed of men may have several explanations. The iron is related to the iron legs which represents the absolute ruler of the Roman Empire. Perhaps this means that the royal families which historically ruled will share their blood and power in the world with non-royal families. Another aspect to consider is that in the time of the end Satan and his demons will be permanently thrown out of heaven and banned to the earth (Revelation 12:9) and demons will take possession of people, especially in those powerful families. Perhaps the ten toes of the feet coincide with the ten horns of the beast representing the final global empire in Revelation 13 and 17.

This image consists of the empires that affected God's chosen ones roughly starting from the destruction of the first temple in Jerusalem and the Babylonian captivity to the death of the Messiah and His disciples, and then jumping to the final global empire when God's Kingdom will be completed. I think that the history between the Roman Empire and the final global empire is not mentioned in this vision because it is irrelevant as there is no divine intervention. The Son of God will intervene again during the time of the end and the final global empire. From the viewpoint of God's people in the time of the end the phrase all the earth means literally the complete world.

Daniel 2:44-45 (TS2009)
And in the days of these sovereigns the Elah of the heavens shall set up a reign which shall never be destroyed, nor the reign pass on to other people – it crushes and puts to an end all these reigns, and it shall stand forever. Because you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it crushed the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold, the great Elah has made known to the sovereign what shall be after this. And the dream is true, and its interpretation is trustworthy.

God will set up His everlasting Kingdom in the days of these sovereigns meaning during the reign of the leaders of the final global empire which is symbolized by the feet and toes of the image. The Son of God will destroy Satan's final global empire on earth and the destruction also means the end of Satan's empires on earth. God is ultimately in control of all and everything (1 Chronicles 29:12, 2 Chronicles 20:6, Psalms 103:19).

Daniel 2:46-49 (TS2009)
Then Sovereign Nebukadnetstsar fell on his face, and did obeisance before Daniel, and gave orders to present to him an offering and incense. The sovereign answered Daniel, and said, “Truly your Elah is the Elah of elahin, the Master of sovereigns, and a revealer of secrets, since you were able to reveal this secret.” Then the sovereign made Daniel great and gave him many great gifts, and made him ruler over all the province of Babel, and chief of the nobles, over all the wise ones of Babel. And Daniel asked of the sovereign, and he set Shadrak, Meyshak, and Abed-Neḡo over the work of the province of Babel, and Daniel in the gate of the sovereign.

King Nebuchadnezzar acknowledges God and rewards Daniel. He is the only king of any worldly empire that bowed down before God. Perhaps that is why he was chosen by God to have this dream. In the end every knee will bend for God (Isaiah 45:23, Romans 14:11).