I looked again, and this time I saw a scroll flying through the air.

In another vision I saw four ox horns.

I asked the angel that had been speaking to me, "What do these horns mean?" He answered, "They stand for the world powers that have scattered the people of Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem."

He has made you ruler of all the inhabited earth and ruler over all the animals and birds. You are the head of gold.

And then there will be a fourth empire, as strong as iron, which shatters and breaks everything. And just as iron shatters everything, it will shatter and crush all the earlier empires.

Four huge beasts came up out of the ocean, each one different from the others.

The second beast looked like a bear standing on its hind legs. It was holding three ribs between its teeth, and a voice said to it, "Go on, eat as much meat as you can!"

As I was watching, a fourth beast appeared. It was powerful, horrible, terrifying. With its huge iron teeth it crushed its victims, and then it trampled on them. Unlike the other beasts, it had ten horns.

The four horns that came up when the first horn was broken represent the four kingdoms into which that nation will be divided and which will not be as strong as the first kingdom.

He lifts the poor from the dust and raises the needy from their misery. He makes them companions of princes and puts them in places of honor. The foundations of the earth belong to the LORD; on them he has built the world.

If God decided to do nothing at all, no one could criticize him. If he hid his face, we would be helpless.

But his plans endure forever; his purposes last eternally.

Your righteousness is towering like the mountains; your justice is like the depths of the sea. People and animals are in your care.

Human wisdom, brilliance, insight---they are of no help if the LORD is against you.

This is my plan for the world, and my arm is stretched out to punish the nations."

The LORD Almighty is determined to do this; he has stretched out his arm to punish, and no one can stop him.

I am God and always will be. No one can escape from my power; no one can change what I do."

From the beginning I predicted the outcome; long ago I foretold what would happen. I said that my plans would never fail, that I would do everything I intended to do.

I am calling a man to come from the east; he will swoop down like a hawk and accomplish what I have planned. I have spoken, and it will be done.

But leave the stump in the ground with a band of iron and bronze around it. Leave it there in the field with the grass. " 'Now let the dew fall on this man, and let him live with the animals and the plants.

He looks on the people of the earth as nothing; angels in heaven and people on earth are under his control. No one can oppose his will or question what he does.

They gathered to do everything that you by your power and will had already decided would happen.

All things are done according to God's plan and decision; and God chose us to be his own people in union with Christ because of his own purpose, based on what he had decided from the very beginning.

God did this according to his eternal purpose, which he achieved through Christ Jesus our Lord.