Daniel 4:31-33

4:31 While these words were still on the king’s lips,¹ a voice came down from heaven: “It is hereby announced to you,² King Nebuchadnezzar, that your kingdom has been removed from you! 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 before³ you understand that the Most High is ruler over human kingdoms and gives them to whomever he wishes.”

4:33 Now in that very moment⁴ this pronouncement about⁵ Nebuchadnezzar came true.⁶ He was driven from human society, he ate grass like oxen, and his body became damp with the dew of the sky, until his hair became long like an eagle’s feathers, and his nails like a bird’s claws.⁷

Jeremiah 50:30-32

50:30 So her young men will fall in her city squares.

All her soldiers will be destroyed at that time,”

says the Lord.⁸

50:31 “Listen! I am opposed to you, you proud city,”⁹

says the Lord God who rules over all.¹⁰

“Indeed,¹¹ your day of reckoning¹² has come,

the time when I will punish you.¹³

50:32 You will stumble and fall, you proud city;

no one will help you get up.

I will set fire to your towns;

it will burn up everything that surrounds you.”¹⁴

¹tn Aram “in the mouth of the king.”

²tn Aram “to you they say.”

³tn Aram “until.”

⁴tn Aram “hour.”

⁵tn Or “on.”

⁶tn Aram “was fulfilled.”

⁷tn The words “feathers” and “claws” are not present in the Aramaic text, but have been added in the translation for clarity.

⁸tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

⁹tn Heb “Behold, I am against you, proud one.” The word “city” is not in the text but it is generally agreed that the word is being used as a personification of the city which had “proudly defied” the Lord (v. 29). The word “city” is supplied in the translation for clarity.

¹⁰tn Heb “oracle of the Lord Yahweh of armies.” For the rendering of this title and an explanation of its significance see the study note on 2:19.

¹¹tn The particle כִּי (ki) is probably asseverative here (so J. A. Thompson, Jeremiah [NICOT], 739, n. 13, and cf. BDB 472 s.v. כִּי 1.e for other examples). This has been a common use of this particle in the book of Jeremiah.

¹²tn The words “of reckoning” are not in the text but are implicit from the context. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.

¹³sn Compare v. 27.

¹⁴tn Heb “And the proud one will fall and there will be no one to help him up. I will start a fire in his towns and it will consume all that surround him.” The personification continues but now the stance is indirect (third person) rather than direct (second person). It is easier for the modern reader who is not accustomed to such sudden shifts if the second person is maintained. The personification of the city (or nation) as masculine is a little unusual; normally cities and nations are personified as feminine, as daughters or mothers.