Daniel 4

4:1 NEBUCHADNEZZAR the king, unto all the peoples, nations, and languages, that dwell 2 in all the earth; peace be multiplied unto you. It hath seemed good unto me to shew the 3 signs and wonders that the Most High God hath wrought toward me. How great are his signs! and how mighty are his wonders! his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion is from generation to generation. 4, 5 I Nebuchadnezzar was at rest in mine house, and flourishing in my palace. I saw a dream which made me afraid; and the thoughts upon my bed and the visions of my head 6 troubled me. Therefore made I a decree to bring in all the wise men of Babylon before me, 7 that they might make known unto me the interpretation of the dream. Then came in the magicians, the enchanters, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers: and I told the dream before 8 them; but they did not make known unto me the interpretation thereof. But at the last Daniel came in before me, whose name was Belteshazzar, according to the name of my god, 9 and in whom is the spirit of the holy gods: and I told the dream before him, saying, O Belte- shazzar, master of the magicians, because I know that the spirit of the holy gods is in thee, and no secret troubleth thee, tell me the visions of my dream that I have seen, and the inter- 10 pretation thereof. Thus were the visions of my head upon my bed: I saw, and behold a 11 tree in the midst of the earth, and the height thereof was great. The tree grew, and was strong, and the height thereof reached unto heaven, and the sight thereof to the end of all 12 the earth. The leaves thereof were fair, and the fruit thereof much, and in it was meat for all: the beasts of the field had shadow under it, and the fowls of the heaven dwelt in the 13 branches thereof, and all flesh was fed of it. I saw in the visions of my head upon my bed, 14 and, behold, a watcher and an holy one came down from heaven. He cried aloud, and said thus, Hew down the tree, and cut off his branches, shake off his leaves, and scatter his fruit: 15 let the beasts get away from under it, and the fowls from his branches. Nevertheless leave the stump of his roots in the earth, even with a band of iron and brass, in the tender grass of the field; and let it be wet with the dew of heaven, and let his portion be with the beasts 16 in the grass of the earth: let his heart be changed from man’s, and let a beast’s heart be 17 given unto him; and let seven times pass over him. The sentence is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones: to the intent that the living may know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he 18 will, and setteth up over it the lowest of men. This dream I king Nebuchadnezzar have seen: and thou, O Belteshazzar, declare the interpretation, forasmuch as all the wise men of my kingdom are not able to make known unto me the interpretation; but thou art able, for the spirit of the holy gods is in thee. 19 Then Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, was astonied for a while, and his thoughts troubled him. The king answered and said, Belteshazzar, let not the dream, or the inter- pretation, trouble thee. Belteshazzar answered and said, My lord, the dream be to them that 20 hate thee, and the interpretation thereof to thine adversaries. The tree that thou sawest, which grew, and was strong, whose height reached unto the heaven, and the sight thereof to 21 all the earth; whose leaves were fair, and the fruit thereof much, and in it was meat for all; under which the beasts of the field dwelt, and upon whose branches the fowls of the 22 heaven had their habitation: it is thou, O king, that art grown and become strong: for thy greatness is grown, and reacheth unto heaven, and thy dominion to the end of the earth. 23 And whereas the king saw a watcher and an holy one coming down from heaven, and say- ing, Hew down the tree, and destroy it; nevertheless leave the stump of the roots thereof in the earth, even with a band of iron and brass, in the tender grass of the field; and let it be wet with the dew of heaven, and let his portion be with the beasts of the field, till seven 24 times pass over him; this is the interpretation, O king, and it is the decree of the Most High, 25 which is come upon my lord the king: that thou shalt be driven from men, and thy dwell- ing shall be with the beasts of the field, and thou shalt be made to eat grass as oxen, and shalt be wet with the dew of heaven, and seven times shall pass over thee; till thou know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will.

26. And whereas they commanded to leave the stump of the tree roots; thy kingdom shall be 27 sure unto thee, after that thou shalt have known that the heavens do rule. Wherefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable unto thee, and break off thy sins by righteousness, and thine iniquities by shewing mercy to the poor; if there may be a lengthening of thy tran- 28, 29 quillity. All this came upon the king Nebuchadnezzar. At the end of twelve months 30 he was walking in the royal palace of Babylon. The king spake and said, Is not this great Babylon, which I have built for the royal dwelling place, by the might of my power and for 31 the glory of my majesty? While the word was in the king’s mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, saying, O king Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken: the kingdom is departed from 32 thee. And thou shalt be driven from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field; thou shalt be made to eat grass as oxen, and seven times shall pass over thee; until thou know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever 33 he will. The same hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar: and he was driven from men, and did eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his 34 hair was grown like eagles’ feathers, and his nails like birds’ claws. And at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the Most High, and I praised and honoured him that liveth for ever; for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom from generation to generation: 35 and all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his 36 hand, or say unto him, What doest thou? At the same time mine understanding returned unto me; and for the glory of my kingdom, my majesty and brightness returned unto me; and my counsellors and my lords sought unto me; and I was established in my kingdom, 37 and excellent greatness was added unto me. Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honour the King of heaven; for all his works are truth, and his ways judgement: and those that walk in pride he is able to abase.

Chap. 4. Of all historic figures, Nebuchadnezzar most strikingly represents the power of destruction. Like his own image on the plain of Dura, he towers over the ground he has cleared of every opponent from the Nile to the Euphrates. Above all, he had been the instrument in the hand of God to root out His people for their sins from the good land given to their fathers, but he had yet to learn that he himself was subject to their God. This lesson was taught him while he enjoyed the fruit of his victories in the city of Babylon, which he had made the wonder of the world by his “hanging gardens” and other splendid works; and the appointed teacher was a young Hebrew of the first captivity, whose career at Babylon was almost a repetition of that of Joseph at the court of Pharaoh. P. 8.

The Book of Daniel is silent upon the life of Nebuchadnezzar during those twenty to thirty years which witnessed the gradual development of his greatness as a conqueror in the West. The notes on the later chapters of the books of Kings and Chronicles, and on such chapters of Jeremiah as the twenty-second and thirty-sixth, will give the reader a succinct account of much which then happened; for example, of the wars in Judea, Phoenicia and Egypt. It was only after these wars that Nebuchadnezzar could have found time to give himself thoroughly to those works of architectural adornment and utility which for some time had been slowly progressing; and it was only after these wars that the description fairly applies to him—he was “at rest.” It may be assumed that a man like Nebuchadnezzar—who considered himself (according to the inscription) “the chosen of Merodach, the god-born,” and who was not only a soldier of the first rank, but also a “priest-king” of unquestioned intellectual greatness—could not pass through those many years of campaigning, and of contact with “nations and languages,” without being arrested by one phenomenon—a phenomenon which asserted itself due to Divine interference. The Jews and their king were his captives; Jerusalem and the sacred temple of the God of Israel lay in ruins. Prophets had foretold this; and Nebuchadnezzar had a living witness to the truth of their prophecy and the sternness of Divine justice, in the presence of that vast Hebrew multitude which peopled the “Hallat” or “profane” quarter of Babylon. Think of it, as he would, from his heathen point of view, there was perpetually before him a proof that there was One who did “according to His will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: none could stay His hand, or say unto Him, What doest Thou?” (verse 35). “The pride of the king and his humiliation by a severe judgment of God are the subjects of this chapter.” It is also full of evidence of Daniel’s gradual advance and greatness. Just as Ezekiel’s testimony to Daniel’s “righteousness” (Ezek. 14: 14, 20) brings him forward as the example of what the Hebrew captive might be in the sight of his God, so this chapter tells of the esteem and confidence he had won from his royal master (4: 8, etc.). It was the reward of twenty to thirty years’ silent waiting and working. B. C.

Nebuchadnezzar has a second dream, predicting his own insanity; his magicians and Chaldeans cannot give him its interpretation. Daniel gives it; it takes place at the end of twelve months. The king is deposed from his throne and continues insane seven years. His reason then returns; he resumes his sceptre, and ascribes honor and glory to the Most High God. H. C.

1. “These most wonderful events in the life of the king are narrated in his own words, apparently from a proclamation issued by him.” Whether Nebuchadnezzar was the actual writer of the events detailed in this chapter, or Daniel simply recorded what happened and gave to it that half-narrative, half-personal form which the changes from the first to the third persons and vice versa have caused it to assume, is practically a matter of indifference. The undertone of genuineness which makes itself so unobtrusively felt to the Assyrian scholar when reading it is quite sufficient to decide the question of authenticity; while the analogy of similar documents, and the attestation of the LXX. ὀρχὴ τῆς ἐπιστολῆς, give the preference to the first-named view. B. C.

1-3. This entire chapter is in its nature a royal manifesto or proclamation, announcing to all the world the extraordinary ways of the great God in His providences toward the king. By “signs and wonders” he means the supernatural dreams, the predicted insanity, the moral ends which the Lord sought to gain by it, and the actual results. These terms are usually employed in the Scriptures to denote the supernatural works of God—those which are unlike the common course of natural events, and such as men are wont to conceive of therefore as above nature—supernatural. It is noticeable that the introduction to this manifesto recognizes “the High God” as the Supreme and Eternal Ruler, at the head of a kingdom which endures forever, and swaying a dominion which does not, like those of mortal men, pass away with the lapse of human generations, but holds on, unaffected by time, from generation to generation. This manifesto is addressed, not to the people of his own vast realm alone, but to “all people, nations and languages that dwell in all the earth.” This universality, coupled with the moral fitness and force of the document, render it truly magnificent and sublime. Think of it as translated into every spoken language throughout all the tribes of earth’s entire population and sent to them from the once proud king of great Babylon and of the vast Chaldean empire! A humble testimony that, great as this monarch of Babylon had been, the Most High God is immeasurably greater; that glorious and powerful as his empire had been in the eyes of men, the kingdom of the great God is mightier far and exalted in far higher glory! H. C.

4. At rest and flourishing. Significant words, which go far to indicate the period of his life referred to. Nebuchadnezzar was “resting” in undisputed possession of a “dominion” which extended “to the end of the earth” (verse 22); he was in his own house; not now a warrior at the head of his army, but in that dwelling, that palace of which one small fragment alone remains (Layard, “Nineveh and Babylon,” p. 506); he was “flourishing” like a tree; a simile used by the king with distinct reference to his dream (verse 10), and conveying to the Oriental mind a recognized symbol of fresh, mighty growth.

9. No secret troubleth thee. It is thus that the king marks the difference between “the master” and the rest of the wise men. In language both courteous and appealing—when compared with that used on a former occasion, 2: 5, 26—he asks from that power in Daniel which revealed secrets (2: 47) the solution of his dream. B. C.

10-17. The dream is really in two parts: one part presented to the eye, the other to the ear; the first part a great tree which the king saw, the second an oral declaration made by an angel from heaven, which he heard. The first part (verses 10-12) describes the tree—exceeding great, tall, strong, visible to the ends of the earth; of immense foliage and most abundant fruit. The beasts repose under its shade; the fowls of heaven dwell amid its branches, and all flesh is fed from its stores of fruit. The second part (verses 13-17) recites the audible proclamation. The king sees a glorious personage, here described as “a watcher, even a holy one, coming down from heaven.” He is a watcher, one of God’s unsleeping angels whom He puts in charge over portions of the vast providential agencies of His universe. The term angel contemplates this order of beings as sent forth on some mission, “angel” meaning a messenger. But the term “watcher” expresses their work equally well. “Are they not all ministering spirits?” (Heb. 1: 14). Some are sent specially to minister to the heirs of salvation; others, as the Book of Daniel teaches (see chap. 10; 11: 1; 12: 1), are put in charge over the kingdoms of men—the great agents of the Most High in the execution of His providential purposes and government. In this case, “the watcher, an holy one,” came down to finish out the dream by announcing the destiny of the tree. This he proclaims with a loud voice: “Hew down the tree, cut off its branches,” etc., but leave the stump of its roots in the earth, firmly fixed there as if bound with a band of iron and brass. From this point the description slides insensibly from the figure to the reality—from the stump of the tree to the king himself, shorn of his glory. “Let it be wet with the dew of heaven,” looks toward the insane king, outcast from human society and from the homes of men, taking his portion with the beasts of the earth. His heart changed from man’s and a beast’s heart given to him, indicate the utter loss for the time of his understanding and reason. He has dropped down from the grade of thinking, reasoning man to that of the unthinking, unreasoning beast. And this is to continue “until seven times have passed over him.” The word “times” refers to the best known division of time, the year. It is (perhaps) a definite number for an indefinite—the real duration being possibly somewhat less than seven full years. God Himself has ordained this infliction upon the great king. He has done it for a special purpose here assigned—viz., that the living may know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdoms of men, giving regal power to whom He will. H. C.

16. Let his heart be changed. (Cf. verse 25.) The plain interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s case, stripped of the prophetic figurative language, appears to be that he should be punished with madness, should fancy himself a beast, and live like a beast, but after some time should recover his reason and resume the government. Bp. Newton.

17. To the intent that the living may know. The intent of this matter was to give mankind a proof, in the fall and restoration of this mighty monarch, that the fortunes of kings and empires are in the hand of God; that His providence perpetually interposes in the affairs of men, distributing crowns and sceptres always for the good of the faithful primarily, ultimately of His whole creation, but according to His will; by which we must understand a will perfectly independent and unbiased by anything external; yet not an arbitrary will, but a will directed by the governing perfections of the Divine intellect; by God’s own goodness and wisdom; and as justice is included in the idea of goodness, it must be a will governed by God’s justice. Bp. Horsley.

18. The king submits this dream to Daniel for him to interpret. He is confident Daniel can do it, because “the spirit of the holy gods is in him.” This recognition of the great doctrine that God’s spiritual presence and power are with His people, that He can and sometimes does reveal to them His own exclusively Divine foreknowledge of events, is a remarkable testimony from the greatest king and the master-mind of the age.

20-26. Here is the interpretation. The great tree is no other than the great-king. This description corresponds in most respects with that given above (verses 10-17), save only that here it is applied to the king, and remarkably, the clause which referred most plainly to his insanity, “Let his heart be changed from man’s and let a beast’s heart be given him,” is here omitted. In verses 25, 26 the agents referred to, “they shall drive thee from men;” “they shall make thee eat grass;” “they shall wet thee with the dew of heaven,” are apparently those angelic beings whom God employs in His providential administration, controlling the activities of men and bringing about the course of events in harmony with the Divine will. That the stump and roots are left living and strong in the earth denoted that his kingdom should still remain sure to him and should return to his hand after he should have fully seen and heartily admitted that the God of heaven (for brevity’s sake here “the heavens”) does rule. This preservation of the kingdom to him by preventing any successor from obtruding himself upon the throne, may, not improbably, have been due to this known prediction and to Daniel’s personal influence. Daniel was in a position to have almost unlimited control in this thing.

27. As the time of this calamity was not fixed, it might be postponed by the king’s repentance; indeed it might have been altogether prevented if he had become truly penitent. Why not as really as the destruction of Nineveh foretold by Jonah, the precise date of which moreover was set to ninety days. Hence the way is open for Daniel to exhort his sovereign in all fidelity and love to “break off his sins by righteousness, and his iniquities by showing mercy to the poor,” since thus he might, nay would, prolong this present peace and prosperity. This noble example of manly and Christian fidelity to his sovereign is worthy of all admiration, and of course imitation. Prompted by such manifest love and in manner so respectful to the king, and yet with so much personal dignity, it must have fallen upon the king’s mind with great force. The sin specially indicated here, unrighteous oppression of the poor, looks very probably toward the terrible exactions of labor imposed upon his defenceless subjects (some of them captives of war) in those immense public works which were in the eyes of men the glory of his reign. H. C.

Break off thy sins by righteousness. Among the many accusations against the Book of Daniel, one of the most frivolous has been raised on this passage, as if Daniel taught the doctrine of human merit, and the atonement of our transgressions by virtuous actions. The word simply means “break off,” make an end of thy sins by a change of life. It is almost equivalent to “sin no more” and change thy ways. Rose.

Whatever the impression, it did not last long. “All,” in spite of the caution and the prayer, “came upon Nebuchadnezzar.” Twelve months passed away—months of peace as regarded enemies without, and of work as regarded the embellishment of his capital. B. C.

28-33. It may be supposed that Daniel’s faithful exhortation had some good moral influence on the king for a season. The impending calamity was deferred twelve months. But his goodness was as the morning cloud. When his pride resumed its sway over his heart, just while he was walking on the flat roof of his lofty palace, overlooking the splendor of that most splendid city, and saying, “Is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power and for the honor of my majesty”—at that moment there came another voice; it fell from heaven. The dream was fulfilled! H. C.

29,30. With the rise of the Chaldean hegemony under Nabopolassar, B.C. 625, and the utter overthrow of Nineveh, Babylon rose from its ashes more beautiful than ever. The great Nebuchadnezzar restored the city on such a gigantic scale, and with such splendid adornment of wide streets, temples, palaces, and fortifications, that it may fairly be designated as the new creation of this powerful prince, who, in the East India House Inscription, says of his own work:

“Nebuchadnezzar I am, king of Babylon, whom Marduk, the great lord, created for a blessing to his city of Babylon. Ezagila and Ezida [the two great temples of Babylon and Borsippa] I caused to shine with the brilliancy of the sun, and the temples of the great gods with the brightness of day. Heretofore, from distant days, [and] until the reign of Nabopolassar king of Babylon, my father, many kings who reigned before me, whom the gods had called by name to the royal power, in [other] cities which they preferred, wherever they chose, built palaces, established their residence, heaped up their wealth in them, brought together their possessions; and only at the festival of the New Year, when the lord of the gods goes forth, did they come to Shuanna [the sacred name of Babylon]. Since Marduk created me for royal rule, [and] Nabû his legitimate son entrusted his peoples to me, I loved the building of their halls as my precious life. Besides Babylon and Borsippa, I reared and adorned no cities.”

It is therefore intelligible when Nebuchadnezzar, standing on the terrace of his royal palace, which had been erected by the labor of subject kings and peoples, looked down upon the tumult below him, upon the broad mirror of the Euphrates, with its restraining walls and bridge-piers which still exist, and spoke the insolent words recorded in the Book of Daniel: “Is not this great Babylon, which I have built for the royal dwelling-place, by the might of my power and for the glory of my majesty?” R. E. Thompson.

Upon a terraced foundation was reared the royal palace; the roof was of immense cedar and cypress beams; the gates of sandal-wood, inlaid with ivory and ornamented with gold and silver; the pinnacle of white marble. On terraces connected by stairs were planted trees and shrubs; the hollow columns, filled with earth, served as receptacles for the roots of the largest trees; while extensive water-works brought from the Euphrates the water required for the gardens and the wells. Nebuchadnezzar’s wife, a Median princess, had wished for those gardens, that she might enjoy, in the Babylonian valley, a view reminding her of her native hills and parks; and her husband, as if by enchantment, called them out of the earth, “lavishly laid out for the wonder of mankind.” . . . Below stretches the carefully kept park of Ezagila, from which projects the palace of Nabopolassar, and the pinnacle of the temple mirrored in the tranquilly-flowing Euphrates, animated by hundreds of ships, whose masts form a boundless forest. Below Ezagila we descry the large Euphrates bridge, supported by columns of hewn stone, also a monument of extraordinary labor and art. Not far from the river, toward the southwest, rises, in the wonderfully clear air, the “pyramid” of Babylon’s sister city, Borsippa, the temple of the seven spheres of heaven and earth—namely, the seven planets. And wherever the eye ranges we see on all hands houses and gardens, fine fields and palm-groves, towns and villages—yea, a landscape of truly heavenly beauty. Now, indeed, can we understand why Nebuchadnezzar, wandering upon his palace walls, exclaimed: “Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom, by the might of my power, and for the honor of my majesty?” Friedrich Delitzsch.

The Babylon of Nebuchadnezzar occupied a square of which each side was fourteen miles in length, and was bisected by the Euphrates diagonally from northwest to southeast. This square was inclosed by a deep moat, flooded from the river. The clay excavated in digging the moat, moulded into bricks and laid in bitumen, formed the walls of the city. These walls, more than three hundred feet high and more than seventy thick, and protected by parapets, afforded a commodious driveway along their top of nearly sixty miles, needing only aerial bridges over the Euphrates River. The waters of the river were forced to flow through the city between quays of masonry which equalled the walls in thickness and height. The walls were pierced at equal intervals for a hundred gates, and each gateway closed with double leaves of ponderous metal, swinging upon bronze posts built into the wall. Fifty broad avenues, crossing each other at right angles, joined the opposite gates of the city, and divided it into a checker-board of gigantic squares. The river quays were pierced by twenty-five gates like those in the outer walls. One of the streets was carried across the river upon an arched bridge, another ran in a tunnel beneath the river-bed, and ferries plied continually across the water where the other streets abutted. The great squares of the city were not all occupied by buildings. Many of them were used as gardens and even farms, and the great fertility of the soil, caused by irrigation, producing two and even three crops a year, supplied food sufficient for the inhabitants in case of siege. Babylon was a vast fortified province rather than a city. W. B. Wright.

Not only does the monarch claim in various lengthy documents to have renovated the walls, the palace, and the various temples of the city, but there is the most unmistakable evidence that his claim to have rebuilt the whole city is just. Of the ancient bricks dug up on the site of Babylon, at least nine tenths bear the name and titles of this monarch. It is clear that his renovation of the place must have amounted to an almost complete rebuilding of it. “Is not this great Babylon that I have built?” was thus a most natural exclamation in the mouth of this king, though it would have been wholly unfit in the mouth of any other Babylonian monarch mentioned in Scripture. His inscriptions add that, besides the great temple of Nebo or of the Seven Spheres at Borsippa, he built there at least five others, together with a temple to the Moon-god at Beth-Ziba, and one to the Sun-god at Larsa or Senkareh. Altogether there is reason to believe that he was one of the most indefatigable of all the builders that have left their mark upon the world in which we live. He covered Babylonia with great works. He found Babylon a perishing city of unbaked clay; he left it one of durable burnt brick, unless it had been for human violence, capable of continuing, as the fragment of the Kaur has continued, to the present day. G. R.

The prophecies of Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel have been literally fulfilled. Notwithstanding more than one revolt of the Babylonian people, and the magnificent schemes of Alexander for restoring the city to its ancient greatness, the empire has been dissolved and the city itself destroyed. To use some of the language of the prophecies, “her foundations are fallen, her walls are thrown down.” Nor is this all that has befallen her; “the sower is cut off from Babylon, and he that handleth the sickle in time of harvest,” for “the drought is upon the waters” which refreshed her territory with fertilizing irrigation. She is become a desolation among the nations without an inhabitant, and of the numerous travellers who pass near her site on their way to and from Baghdad scarcely any except a few Europeans bent on antiquarian research take any notice of the ruins of Babylon. H. W. Philpott.

30. Pride, reaching out its hand in Eden—pride, lifting up its head in Babylon—pride, to-day, defying the laws of nature and outlawing the Deity—pride, flattering itself with fantastic theories of development, according to which the universe, beginning with unorganized particles, culminates in man, and man culminates in the philosopher, so that the representative of this theory stands on the very pinnacle of the universe, everything below him and nothing above—pride, rejecting redemption as a work of supererogation, and spurning revelation as a hindrance, rather than a help to man’s all-sufficient reason—pride, breaking out in the infamous blasphemer or lurking in the bosom of the self-complacent moralist, who patronizes religion without stooping to partake of its privileges—pride, everywhere and always, is the root-sin of our ruined race, and in this regard the king of Babylon finds his counterpart in every sinful human soul. P. S. Henson.

We may bear about with us a heart like Nebuchadnezzar’s, although we dwell within a beggar’s hut. Not sensuality, as men so often suppose, but pride, is the highest and the deepest, the first and the last sin. It goes with the worldling to his social circle, steals with the scholar into his lonely cell; and even when we have entered our solitary bedchamber, we have not shut it out. How many, who are blameless and worthy of respect before the world, inscribe on the edifice of their outward prosperity and moral excellence, “This is the great Babylon, that I have built!” Thus the human heart by nature is arrogant in prosperity, and thus we remain until grace begins the good work in us, by snatching from us the state-robe of haughtiness, and clothing us in the garment of humility.

And for this end the great God is incessantly active; indeed, in Nebuchadnezzar we see the position which God assumes toward the haughty sinner. He bears long with them; He is long-suffering, because He is eternal. He allows the Nebuchadnezzars for successive years to build the proud walls of Babylon; the tree may be high and strong, and yet no voice from heaven, “Cut it down,” resounds above its branches. Meanwhile, God warns the haughty sinner earnestly, as He did Nebuchadnezzar; first by means of his remarkable vision, and after that by Daniel’s infallible exposition of it. Nay, He does not let the defiant man pass to his ruin without warning; in the unquiet dream of our life, we hear at every turning voices from the unseen world calling us to repentance and humility; and on all sides Daniels stretch forth the finger warningly, in order in a higher name to say to us: “Let my counsel be acceptable unto thee, and break off thy sins by righteousness” (verse 27). Van O.

33. Nothing can be sadder than a life made for God and Godlikeness grovelling in the dust. We read with pity of the great king who was driven from men, who dwelt among the beasts and was made to eat grass as oxen, and be wet with the dew of heaven till his hairs were grown like eagles’ feathers and his nails like birds’ claws. Yet God’s angels see this sad story repeated continually in this world. Men and women made for nobleness and glory are found crawling on the earth and living only for earthly things. The true life must set its affections on things above, where Christ sitteth. We should train ourselves to live for things that we can carry with us into the eternal years. No other life is worthy of an immortal being. J. R. M.

What happened during this madness? “The counsellors” and “lords” (verse 36) nearest to his person took charge of his government, perhaps under the presidency of the well-loved Median wife, Amytis, to gratify whose tastes the king had built the “hanging gardens” (Berosus); perhaps under that of the “chief of the Casdim,” whose predecessor had kept the kingdom for him at his father’s death (Journ. Asiat., 1870). His subjects would know that their lord was suffering from some terrible malady, even if they were told nothing of its intensity or nature. They waited till death should end the life of their great king, or till, in accordance with prophetic rumor (cf. verse 26), health should once more be his. His power was too assured, his conquests too thorough to be imperilled by the absence of his own personal supervision. As events proved, the duration of the illness caused no confusion, no alteration in the political and social unity of his empire. B. C.

33-37. No doubt he was constantly watched at a distance, and his safety duly protected, while his son Evil-merodach assumed the regency until his father should be restored to his right mind. This did not occur until the time appointed—seven years—had passed; and then—it is the king himself who relates the facts in a proclamation published on his recovery—“At the end of the days, I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up my eyes unto heaven;” that first look to heaven—that mute appeal of the brute-man, was not in vain—“Mine understanding returned to me;” and what was the first impulse and use of his restored understanding? “I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored Him that liveth forever and ever.” God’s victory over the proudest of men was complete. He proceeded to confess that before Him “all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing; and He doeth according to His will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay His hand, or say unto Him, What doest Thou?” In this conviction he continued after, on perceiving the change that had taken place in him, his counsellors and his lords repaired to him, and brought him back to his palace and his kingdom; for he ends in extolling “the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and His ways judgment; and those that walk in pride, He is able to abase.” Kitto.

As the event stood unconnected with any known natural cause, it must have been beyond the ken of any foresight short of the Divine; and it follows incontestably that the prediction and the accomplishment of it were both from God. The king’s restoration to power and grandeur had also been predicted; and this took place at the predicted time, independently of any natural cause, and without the use of any human means. And the evidence of these extraordinary occurrences, of the prediction, the fall and the restoration, is perhaps the most undeniable of anything which rests upon mere human testimony. The king himself, upon his recovery, published a proclamation in every part of his vast empire, giving an account of all which had befallen him, and in conclusion giving praise and honor to the King of heaven, acknowledging that “all His works are truth, and His ways judgment, and that those who walk in pride He is able to abase.” The evidence of the whole fact, therefore, stands upon this public record of the Babylonian empire, which was preserved word for word in this chapter, of which it makes indeed the whole. This chapter therefore is not Daniel’s writing, but Nebuchadnezzar’s. Bp. Horsley.

The silence of contemporaneous or historical documents is not a disproof of the genuineness of Daniel’s account. The Babylonian royal records were probably, like the Assyrian, carefully written in the form of regular annals, and dealt with military campaigns, spoliations and cruelties. They rarely, if ever, recorded episodes of private life or conveyed moral lessons. Such records were reserved for private and separate tablets, such as the recovered library of Assurbanipal has furnished in illustration of Assyrian royal wills, contracts of barter and sale, proverbs, etc. A record of the madness of Babylon’s greatest king would be in the highest degree improbable; though the memory of it survived for years (verse 22). The native historians would be the last to furnish it. All mention of his illness would be omitted from the annals of his reign, just as all mention of the destruction by the angel of the Lord of the army of Sennacherib is absent from the numerous annals of that monarch. B. C.

34,35. The return of understanding to Nebuchadnezzar is marked by a beautiful assertion of the supremacy of God in the whole universe. It is so grand in its conception, so simple and yet so emphatic in its language, that it may almost be considered as an inspired utterance like those of the prophet Balaam. The influence of the Hebrew captives begins also to be felt in religion, and we see the first beginning of the fermentation of the leaven which was to leaven the world. The captivity and the plantation of the colony of Jews in Alexandria were preparations, in part, of the heathen mind for the reception of the Gospel. They were the first foundation of missionary work, which began on a limited scale in the propagation of the faith of the Jews through their colonies. The foundation being thus laid in the days of the ancient faith, the missionary efforts of the apostolic age were rendered possible. Rose.

On one magnificent portal of the great mosque in Damascus, once a Christian cathedral, still remains engraven the inscription in Greek, “Thy kingdom, O Christ, is an everlasting kingdom, and Thy dominion endureth throughout all generations!” There stand the words, unread by the Moslem. We take them as a silent prophecy that the day is coming when this dark land shall be Christ’s, and He shall reign forever. Tristram.

34. The kingdom of heaven is an everlasting kingdom, can be such only because it is an empire of life, over whose broad territory flits no shadow of death, in whose structure is no element of weakness. It inaugurates nothing less than a thorough, comprehensive mastery, whose grasp cannot be broken. It looks to the sanctification of body, soul and spirit. It cleanses the fountains of domestic life. It recreates languages and literatures. It breathes on the sails of commerce, and lays its bold hands on the rudder of State, until “Holiness to the Lord” shall flame from every masthead, and be proclaimed from every capitol. It means to seize and to hold all the strategic points of human activity, and range unchallenged and honored over all the highways of a busy world. Such a conception of the kingdom God means to establish is not to be measured numerically, but ethically; not by the arithmetic of conversions, but by the reorganization of heathen homes and literatures and governments. Christianity is not only a religion of personal salvation, and of salvation in the narrow sense of getting men into heaven; it makes a heaven below as well as conducting to one above and beyond; it means to transfigure into celestial beauty every form of earthly life—its homes, its traffic, its industries, its restless, adventurous thought, its art, its social movements, its political councils. Numbers alone do not tell the story of evangelization; the seeding and the promised fruitage are vastly greater than the gathered harvest. Behrends.

With the Advent-light the world silently began to be another world. And the Power set working to bring this change about made it unlike all other revolutions. It wrought without violence, noise, ambition, or parade, “not with observation.” It went on not by destruction, but construction; not tearing down, but building up. When the sword was drawn it was because human hands were used, and the obstinacy of the old system would let a path be made for the new in no other way. Generally it moved in among the kingdoms of this world according to the great anthem that announced it when it was born, peacefully seeking glory for God by good-will to men—spreading as morning is spread upon the mountains, as a harmony spreads through the spaces and arches of a sanctuary. Hence, inasmuch as it must take an organic form, after its Living Head, and be a kingdom, it was called a kingdom of life. Life was a great word with it. Its founder was the Life-giver. “I am come,” He said, “that they might have life, and might have it more abundantly.” The change was first in the seats of life, within—coming gradually out into doings or fruit, as the way of life is—from a hidden seed to root, germ, blade and ear; into common labor, elevating it; into homes, purifying them by honoring woman and consecrating childhood; into commerce, hallowing it by the spirit of integrity; into education, making the training of conscience and faith, our loftiest capacities, the crown of all other culture; into worship, directing it to the One God, worshipped in spirit and in truth. Men of our time think they see a grander future in store for the people and for the world. They are right if they look for an age of greater nearness to the Son of Man. The heralds go out. Commerce, science, discovery, education, nature interpreted, sea and sky and land comprehended, humanity awakened, the universe explored, every law traced—these are messengers that will not only foresee, but help bring in the millennium they predict, if they labor and move together in the faith of the great reconciliation, for the righteousness and peace, for the love and purity of God. For then these are manifestations of the kingdom of His Son. F. D. H.

35. The Scriptures fully reveal the doctrine of a superintending Providence. They assert a sovereign personal pleasure ruling in every province of the universe. “He doeth according to His will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth.” They declare that this Supreme Mind is concerned with the minutest events that transpire. Not a sparrow falls without our Heavenly Father, and the very hairs of our heads are all numbered. God’s hand controls the elements, guides the car of Revolution, holds the reins of State, feeds the improvident ravens. This doctrine has in it a mighty practical force. There is a Providence in this world. It walks and works in the midst of us. God is in human history. His purposes go forth on all the tracks of creative agency. There is, indeed, no visible throne, there are no manifest symbols of royalty. His footsteps are in the sea; darkness is His pavilion. There is nothing but the result, unveiling itself from the secrets of His councils, that tells us God is working. When and where He will interpose, by what instrument and for what ends, subordinate and ultimate, it is not given us to know. This secrecy baffles resistance, strengthens faith, and leaves on men a deeper awe before the power that, unseen and untraceable, manages all human affairs. A. L. Stone.

Amid the seeming irregularity and confusion which distract the world, amid all the failures in human schemes and calculations which are daily taking place, amid the horrors of war, the fall of kingdoms, and the ruins of empire, there is one grand, unchangeable purpose which never fails, but which meets its accomplishment alike in the frustration or success of all other purposes. Every event in nature or in grace is simply an evolution of that grand purpose; and could the thread of this purpose be traced by the limited intellect of man in all its bearings and relations, chaos would exhibit regularity, and order and harmony would rise from confusion. Thornwell.

When we pray “Thy will be done,” we pray that God may so rule, that to the utmost ends of the earth, and in the minutest actions of men, and in all the arrangements of life, there may be the easily visible impress of God’s will. This we pray for, but more directly that our circumstances may be so ordered as to enable us to carry out most effectually the design of God with us, and that we may be so gifted with wisdom, courage, and self command, as to see and follow out the line of conduct most appropriate to us where God has set us. Praying thus, we are strengthened for all duty, whether it be active or sorely passive. We find in all that happens to us an answer to this prayer, and instead of being dismayed, as those who have not prayed that the will of God may be done, we find, in every change and seeming chance of life, new scope for carrying on the work of God, our share in His plan; and for our ordinary days which pass as yesterday passed, we find no healthier influence to give them a uniform tone and character than to write on the threshold of each, “Thy will be done.” Dods.

Thus ends the Scripture record of Nebuchadnezzar’s life, but his life did not end then. For some years he retained “the glory” of his kingdom; and when he died at Babylon in the forty-fourth year of his reign (B.C. 561) he was still in peaceful possession of his kingdom. B. C.

The Lord had great purposes to answer by this Chaldean king, and He accomplished those purposes, even though that king would not bow his whole heart to truth and to God. He made all that king’s frailties as well as his nobler qualities of character subserve his own glory and praise; drew from him reiterated testimonials to the majesty, justice and glory of Jehovah, and gave them to the kings and princes of all the earth to whom this revelation should ever come, for their admonition and instruction. Here we leave this greatest and perhaps best of all the sovereigns of the Chaldean empire. H. C.