Commentary Critical and Explanatory
Daniel 2:35
Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.
Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together - excluding a Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together - excluding a contemporaneous existence of the kingdom of the world and the kingdom of God (in its manifested, as distinguished from its spiritual, phase, wherein it "comes without observation," Luke 17:20). The latter is not gradually to wear away the former, but to destroy it at once, and utterly (2 Thessalonians 1:7; 2 Thessalonians 2:8). However, the Hebrew may be translated, 'in one indiscriminate mass'-literally, 'as one;' i:e., not simultaneously, as the English version, but reduced to oneness of condition [ kachªdaa' (H2298)].
And became like the chaff - image of the ungodly, as they shall be dealt with in the judgment (Psalms 1:4, "The ungodly are ... like the chaff which the wind driveth away. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment;" Matthew 3:12).
Of the summer threshing-floors - Grain was winnowed in the East on an elevated space in the open air, by throwing the grain into the air with a shovel, so that the wind might clear away the chaff.
No place was found for them - (Revelation 20:11, "I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them;" cf. Psalms 37:10; Psalms 37:36, "He (the wicked) passed away, and, lo, he was not; yea, I sought him, but he could not be found;" Psalms 103:16).
The stone that smote the image became a great mountain - cut out of the mountain (Daniel 2:45) originally, it ends in becoming a mountain. So the kingdom of God, coming from heaven originally, ends in heaven being established on earth (Revelation 21:1).
And filled the whole earth - (Isaiah 11:9; Habakkuk 2:14). It is in connection with Jerusalem as the mother church it is to do so (Psalms 80:9; Isaiah 2:2).