its legs were of iron, its feet were partly of iron and partly of molded clay.”​—Dan. 2:31-33.

The next part of the image, the iron legs, initially represented Rome. Yet Rome cannot fulfill all the requirements of the iron part of the image. Why not?

Because iron extended into the feet of the image, it being mixed there with molded clay. And concerning the feet of this image, the Bible goes on to state: “A stone was cut out not by hands, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and of molded clay and crushed them. At that time the iron, the molded clay, the copper, the silver and the gold were, all together, crushed.”​—Dan. 2:34, 35.

What did this part of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream mean? Daniel explains: “The God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be brought to ruin. And the kingdom itself will not be passed on to any other people. It will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms [represented by the entire image], and it itself will stand to times indefinite.”​—Dan. 2:44.

That crushing out of existence and replacing of all earthly kingdoms by divine rulership did not occur during the days of the Roman Empire. The ironlike feature of this image, therefore, extends on to the world power succeeding Rome, the Anglo-American.