Daniel 4:10-14

4:10 Here are the visions of my mind while I was on my bed.

While I was watching,

there was a tree in the middle of the land.

It was enormously tall.

4:11 The tree grew large and strong.

Its top reached far into the sky;

it could be seen from the borders of all the land.

4:12 Its foliage was attractive and its fruit plentiful;

on it there was food enough for all.

Under it the wild animals used to seek shade,

and in its branches the birds of the sky used to nest.

All creatures used to feed themselves from it.

4:13 While I was watching in my mind’s visions on my bed,

a holy sentinel came down from heaven.

4:14 He called out loudly as follows:

‘Chop down the tree and lop off its branches!

Strip off its foliage

and scatter its fruit!

Let the animals flee from under it

and the birds from its branches!

Daniel 4:21-23

4:21 whose foliage was attractive and its fruit plentiful, and from which there was food available for all, under whose branches wild animals used to live, and in whose branches birds of the sky used to nest – 4:22 it is you, O king! For you have become great and strong. Your greatness is such that it reaches to heaven, and your authority to the ends of the earth. 4:23 As for the king seeing a holy sentinel coming down from heaven and saying, ‘Chop down the tree and destroy it, but leave its taproot in the ground, with a band of iron and bronze around it, surrounded by the grass of the field. Let it become damp with the dew of the sky, and let it live with the wild animals, until seven periods of time go by for him’ –