Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure. (Daniel 2:45)
This kingdom has a superhuman origin. It is to be founded, not by the ingenious hands of man, but by the mighty hand of God.
Stone.
Aramaic ’eben, identical with the Heb. ’eben, “a single stone,” used of slabs, sling stones, hewn stones, stone vessels, precious stones. The word “rock,” frequently used of God (Deut. 32:4, 18; 1 Sam. 2:2; etc.), is from the Heb. ṣur rather than ’eben. It cannot be established that there is any necessary connection between Daniel’s symbol for the kingdom of God and the figure of a rock or stone used elsewhere. The interpretation offered by Daniel is of itself sufficient to identify the symbol.