Daniel 4:20-23

4:20 The tree that you saw that grew large and strong, whose top reached to the sky, and which could be seen ¹  in all the land, 4:21 whose foliage was attractive and its fruit plentiful, and from which there was food available for all, under whose branches wild animals ²  used to live, and in whose branches birds of the sky used to nest – 4:22 it is you, ³  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’ –

[4:20]  ¹ tn Aram “its sight.”

[4:21]  ² tn Aram “the beasts of the field” (also in vv. 23, 25, 32).

[4:22]  ³ sn Much of modern scholarship views this chapter as a distortion of traditions that were originally associated with Nabonidus rather than with Nebuchadnezzar. A Qumran text, the Prayer of Nabonidus, is often cited for parallels to these events.