Daniel 4:25

4:25 You will be driven ¹  from human society, ²  and you will live ³  with the wild animals. You will be fed ⁴  grass like oxen, ⁵  and you will become damp with the dew of the sky. Seven periods of time will pass by for you, before ⁶  you understand that the Most High is ruler over human kingdoms and gives them to whomever he wishes.

Daniel 4:32

4:32 You will be driven from human society, and you will live with the wild animals. You will be fed grass like oxen, and seven periods of time will pass by for you before ⁷  you understand that the Most High is ruler over human kingdoms and gives them to whomever he wishes.”

Daniel 5:18

5:18 As for you, O king, the most high God bestowed on your father Nebuchadnezzar a kingdom, greatness, honor, and majesty. ⁸ 

Daniel 5:2

5:2 While under the influence ⁹  of the wine, Belshazzar issued an order to bring in the gold and silver vessels – the ones that Nebuchadnezzar his father ¹⁰  had confiscated ¹¹  from the temple in Jerusalem ¹²  – so that the king and his nobles, together with his wives and his concubines, could drink from them. ¹³ 

Daniel 1:1

Daniel Finds Favor in Babylon

1:1 In the third ¹⁴  year of the reign of King Jehoiakim of Judah, King Nebuchadnezzar ¹⁵  of Babylon advanced against Jerusalem ¹⁶  and laid it under siege. ¹⁷ 

Ezra 1:2

1:2 “Thus says King Cyrus of Persia:

“‘The Lord God of heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth. He has instructed me to build a temple ¹⁸  for him in Jerusalem, ¹⁹  which is in Judah.

Proverbs 8:15

8:15 Kings reign by means of me,

and potentates ²⁰  decree ²¹  righteousness;

Jeremiah 28:14

28:14 For the Lord God of Israel who rules over all ²²  says, “I have put an irresistible yoke of servitude on all these nations ²³  so they will serve King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. And they will indeed serve him. I have even given him control over the wild animals.”’” ²⁴ 

Revelation 19:16

19:16 He has a name written on his clothing and on his thigh: “King of kings and Lord of lords.”

¹ tn The Aramaic indefinite active plural is used here like the English passive. So also in v. 28, 29,32.

² tn Aram “from mankind.” So also in v. 32.

³ tn Aram “your dwelling will be.” So also in v. 32.

⁴ tn Or perhaps “be made to eat.”

⁵ sn Nebuchadnezzar’s insanity has features that are associated with the mental disorder known as boanthropy, in which the person so afflicted imagines himself to be an ox or a similar animal and behaves accordingly.

⁶ tn Aram “until.”

⁷ tn Aram “until.”

⁸ tn Or “royal greatness and majestic honor,” if the four terms are understood as a double hendiadys.

⁹ tn Or perhaps, “when he had tasted” (cf. NASB) in the sense of officially initiating the commencement of the banquet. The translation above seems preferable, however, given the clear evidence of inebriation in the context (cf. also CEV “he got drunk and ordered”).

¹⁰ tn Or “ancestor”; or “predecessor” (also in vv. 11, 13, 18). The Aramaic word translated “father” can on occasion denote these other relationships.

¹¹ tn Or “taken.”

¹² map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

¹³ sn Making use of sacred temple vessels for an occasion of reveling and drunkenness such as this would have been a religious affront of shocking proportions to the Jewish captives.

¹⁴ sn The third year of the reign of Jehoiakim would be ca. 605 B.C. At this time Daniel would have been a teenager. The reference to Jehoiakim’s third year poses a serious crux interpretum, since elsewhere these events are linked to his fourth year (Jer 25:1; cf. 2 Kgs 24:1; 2 Chr 36:5-8). Apparently Daniel is following an accession year chronology, whereby the first partial year of a king’s reign was reckoned as the accession year rather than as the first year of his reign. Jeremiah, on the other hand, is following a nonaccession year chronology, whereby the accession year is reckoned as the first year of the king’s reign. In that case, the conflict is only superficial. Most modern scholars, however, have concluded that Daniel is historically inaccurate here.

¹⁵ sn King Nebuchadnezzar ruled Babylon from ca. 605-562 B.C.

¹⁶ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

¹⁷ sn This attack culminated in the first of three major deportations of Jews to Babylon. The second one occurred in 597 B.C. and included among many other Jewish captives the prophet Ezekiel. The third deportation occurred in 586 B.C., at which time the temple and the city of Jerusalem were thoroughly destroyed.

¹⁸ tn Heb “house.” The Hebrew noun בַּיִת (bayit, “house”) is often used in reference to the temple of Yahweh (BDB 108 s.v. 1.a). This is also frequent elsewhere in Ezra and Nehemiah (e.g., Ezra 1:3, 4, 5, 7; 2:68; 3:8, 9, 11, 12; 4:3; 6:22; 7:27; 8:17, 25, 29, 30, 33, 36; 9:9; 10:1, 6, 9).

¹⁹ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

²⁰ tn The verb רָזַן (razan) means “to be weighty; to be judicious; to be commanding.” It only occurs in the Qal active participle in the plural as a substantive, meaning “potentates; rulers” (e.g., Ps 1:1-3). Cf. KJV, ASV “princes”; NAB “lawgivers.”

²¹ sn This verb יְחֹקְקוּ (yÿkhoqqu) is related to the noun חֹק (khoq), which is a “statute; decree.” The verb is defined as “to cut in; to inscribe; to decree” (BDB 349 s.v. חָקַק). The point the verse is making is that when these potentates decree righteousness, it is by wisdom. History records all too often that these rulers acted as fools and opposed righteousness (cf. Ps 2:1-3). But people in power need wisdom to govern the earth (e.g., Isa 11:1-4 which predicts how Messiah will use wisdom to do this very thing). The point is underscored with the paronomasia in v. 15 with “kings” and “will reign” from the same root, and then in v. 16 with both “princes” and “rule” being cognate. The repetition of sounds and meanings strengthens the statements.

²² tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.” See the study notes on 2:19 and 7:3 for this title.

²³ tn Heb “An iron yoke I have put on the necks of all these nations.”

²⁴ sn The emphasis is on the absoluteness of Nebuchadnezzar’s control. The statement is once again rhetorical and not to be taken literally. See the study note on 27:6.