4:3 “How great are his signs!
How mighty are his wonders!
His kingdom will last forever, 1
and his authority continues from one generation to the next.”
4:34 But at the end of the appointed time 2 I, Nebuchadnezzar, looked up 3 toward heaven, and my sanity returned to me.
I extolled the Most High,
and I praised and glorified the one who lives forever.
For his authority is an everlasting authority,
and his kingdom extends from one generation to the next.
1 tn Aram “his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom.”
2 tn Aram “days.”
3 tn Aram “lifted up my eyes.”
4 tn Heb “[you are] great in counsel and mighty in deed.”
5 tn Heb “your eyes are open to the ways of the sons of men.”
6 tn Heb “giving to each according to his way [= behavior/conduct] and according to the fruit of his deeds.”
7 tn Or “You did miracles and amazing deeds in the land of Egypt. And you continue to do them until this day both in Israel and among mankind. By this mean you have gained a renown…” The translation here follows the syntactical understanding reflected also in NJPS. The Hebrew text reads: “you did miracles and marvelous acts in the land of Egypt until this day and in Israel and in mankind and you made for yourself a name as this day.” The majority of English versions and commentaries understand the phrases “until this day and in Israel and in mankind” to be an elliptical sentence with the preceding verb and objects supplied as reflected in the alternate translation. However, the emphasis on the miraculous deeds in Egypt in this section both before and after this elliptical phrase and the dominant usage of the terms “signs and wonders” to refer to the plagues and other miraculous signs in Egypt calls this interpretation into question. The key here is understanding “both in Israel and in mankind” as an example of a casus pendens construction (a dangling subject, object, or other modifier) before a conjunction introducing the main clause (cf. GKC 327 §111.h and 458 §143.d and compare the usage in Jer 6:19; 33:24; 1 Kgs 15:13). This verse is the topic sentence which is developed further in v. 21 and initiates a narrative history of the distant past that continues until v. 22b where reference is made to the long history of disobedience which has led to the present crisis.
8 tn Grk “tongues,” though the word is used figuratively (perhaps as a metonymy of cause for effect). To “speak in tongues” meant to “speak in a foreign language,” though one that was new to the one speaking it and therefore due to supernatural causes. For a discussion concerning whether such was a human language, heavenly language, or merely ecstatic utterance, see BDAG 201-2 s.v. γλῶσσα 2, 3; BDAG 399 s.v. ἕτερος 2; L&N 33.2-4; ExSyn 698; C. M. Robeck Jr., “Tongues,” DPL, 939-43.
9 tn For further comment on the nature of this statement, whether it is a promise or prediction, see ExSyn 403-6.
10 tn The miraculous nature of these signs is implied in the context.
11 tn Grk “God bearing witness together” (the phrase “with them” is implied).
12 tn Grk “and distributions of the Holy Spirit.”