Daniel 4
Nebuchadnezzar goes grass-eating mad
The king’s letter to everyone
1King Nebuchadnezzar sent this letter to everyone in the world—all nations and all languages:I hope you’re able to live in peace and make a good living for yourself. 2I want to tell you about the messages and miracles the Supreme God [1] has given me. 3His miracles are powerful,
Magnificent, and wonderful.
He rules his kingdom now
And for the rest of time.
He has always been the supreme authority
And will be for the generations to come.
Dream of a terrifying tree
4I’m Nebuchadnezzar, and I was comfortable and well off, living in my palace. 5But I had a nightmare that terrified me. 6So I issued a royal decree, ordering all sages throughout the Babylonian Empire to come to Babylon and explain this horrifying dream.7They all came. [2] I told them the dream, but they didn’t know what it meant. 8In time, Daniel came to see me. We call him Belteshazzar. I named him after my god. But Daniel has within him the spirit of the Holy God. [3] I told him my dream.
9I said, “Belteshazzar, you’re the best of the sages. I know you’ve got the spirit of the Holy God inside you. Because of that, you can solve any mystery. So listen to my dream and tell me what it means. 10I said:
Lying in my bed I saw it,
A tree thick and tall,
Growing in the middle of the world.
Pushed high into the sky.
It was a sight to see,
And the whole world saw it.
12Beautiful leaves laced the branches
And its fruit fed everyone.
Animals rested in its shade.
Birds nested in its branches.
Everyone and everything ate its fruit,
People and animals alike.
An observer watching from heaven
13In my dream, I stared at this scene for a while. Someone holy in heaven had been watching this, too. He came down to me. 14And he said:Drop that tree
And cut off its branches.
Strip the leaves
And trash the fruit.
Scatter the animals in its shade
And send the nesting birds to the sky.
With its root anchored in the soil.
Fence him in with iron and bronze
And bed him on a blanket of grass.
Bathe him in the morning dew.
Let him live among the animals
Who spend their lives in the field.
16Change the way he thinks.
No more thinking like a human.
Let him think like an animal.
Let’s have it last for seven stretches. [4]
17Make it so. This is a divine decree.
It comes from the holy one who watches.
And it’s supported by a council of holy ones. [5]
Here’s the reason for it all:
So everyone will know the Supreme God
And see that he’s everyone’s king.
He’s the kingmaker of whoever he chooses,
Even from the most unlikely souls.”
Daniel explains the king’s nightmare
18The king said, “Belteshazzar, this was my dream, the dream of King Nebuchadnezzar. Now tell me what it means. None of the other sages can do that. But you can because you have the spirit of the Holy God.”19Daniel, who the king renamed Belteshazzar, thought about the dream. But the more he thought, the more frightened he became. The king tried to calm him, “Belteshazzar, don’t be afraid to tell me what the dream means.” Daniel said, “My king, I’m so sorry. I wish the dream applied to your enemies instead of you.
20So, you saw a tree so tall that everyone on earth could see it. 21It was loaded with leaves that provided shade for livestock. There was enough fruit on the tree to feed everyone, people and animals. Birds made their home in the branches. 22This tree represented you, dear king. You have grown strong. Everyone knows who you are. You rule the world.
23You saw a holy observer come down from heaven and say, ‘Drop the tree and cut it up. But leave the stump in the ground. Fence him in with iron and bronze and bed him on a blanket of grass. Bathe him in the morning dew. Let him live among the animals for seven stretches.’
24This is what that part of the dream means. And I’m afraid it comes from the top. It’s a divine decree from the Supreme God. And it’s directed at you. 25You will leave people and live among wild animals. You will graze on grass like cattle. You will wake up each morning, wet from dew. This will last for seven stretches of time. That’s how long it will take you to accept that the Greatest God rules over all of earth’s kingdoms. And he gives those kingdoms to whoever he wants to.
26The stump with its roots represents that you won’t lose your kingdom. It will be there when you come back, after you learn that heaven rules.
27Dear king, please take my advice. Atone for whatever sins you can—make it right. Then live right. Atone by showing mercy to hurting people. Do this so your life will be better and you’ll live longer.”
The king grows claws
28It happened. King Nebuchadnezzar got everything Daniel predicted. 29But it waited a year. That’s when the king took a stroll on the roof of the Babylon palace.30He looked out over his city and said, “Yessir, Babylon is one jewel of a town. And I built it with the power of my authority. It’s a living testimony to how great I am.”
31While King Nebuchadnezzar was still talking about how great he was, a voice descended from the sky: “Oh King Nebuchadnezzar, your kingdom has come and gone. It’s not yours anymore. 32You’ll leave people to live in the fields with animals. You’ll graze on grass like cattle. This will continue for seven stretches of time, until it settles inside your head that the Supreme God rules everyone and he gives kingdoms to whoever he wants.”
33It happened right away. Nebuchadnezzar was driven away from people. He ate grass like cattle. [6] Dew bathed him. This continued long enough for him to grow hair as long as eagle feathers [7] and fingernails that looked like bird claws. [8]
Nebuchadnezzar comes to his senses
34When the time ended, I, Nebuchadnezzar, looked to the sky and suddenly I was myself again.I thank the Supreme God.
I honor the eternal one.
He rules everything
And his kingdom never ends
But continues for generation after generation.
God does whatever he wants
With whoever he wants, in heaven or earth.
No one can take a stand against him and win.
No one can challenge him or say,
“What on earth do you think you’re doing?” 36When I came to myself, I got my kingdom back. Again, I lived in the splendor and glory of Babylon. My advisors and officials came back to serve me. And I was better off than ever before.
Footnotes
The description of God is often translated “God Most High.” The descriptive word in Aramaic, the original language of this chapter, is illay. It means: highest, most important, or supreme. The implication is that he is more powerful than anyone or anything.
The writer describes the groups, but with terms that aren’t clear. That’s why Bible translations handle the terms differently. Translators used terms such as: enchanters, astrologers, fortune-tellers, exorcists, diviners, and Chaldeans. Chaldea was a small territory in what is now southeastern Iraq. It followed the shores of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to the northern tip of the Persian Gulf. The king may have used the name to refer to a particular kind of royal advisor who lived in Chaldea, such as an astrologer or fortune-teller.
It’s unclear if the king is referring to God or gods. The description is most often translated as “holy gods,” in the plural. But the phrase works either way: singular or plural. Some translate it as “holy deity.”
What’s a “stretch”? The writer doesn’t say. It could be seven years, seven seasons, seven new moons. Daniel may have been vague in his prediction because he didn’t know any more than he said. Or he didn’t want to say more than he said. It’s bad enough to tell the king he’s going to go mad. Why add to the danger by telling him it’ll last for seven years? Kings sometimes kill the messenger.
“Council of holy ones” seems to imply that God may operate his eternal kingdom much like human kings do, with a council of officials who serve the king. A prophet called Micaiah reported a vision in which he saw God asking for a volunteer from among his servants (1 Kings 22:20). Also, the story of Job, in chapters 1-2, tells about God meeting with a council in heaven.
There’s a piece of an ancient document that seems to refer to Nebuchadnezzar having a mental illness. It’s written in wedge-shaped cuneiform letters pressed into a clay tablet. He’s all but a no-show during the last 30 years of his 43-year reign (605-561 BC). He could have experienced his mental illness during that stretch of time. This description of mad men shows up in other writings. The Tale of Ahiqar quotes a heroic figure, “The hair on my head had grown to my shoulders, and my beard reached my chest…and my nails were grown like eagles.” There’s a similar character, Enkidu, in the ancient Epic of Gilgamesh. He’s described as hairy, naked, and eating grass. So, the description of King Nebuchadnezzar might be a metaphor, some scholars say—a creative way of saying he lost his mind. If that’s the case, the writer didn’t intend on us taking the description of the mad king literally.
The main feathers of an eagle grow to 16-22 inches (40-51 cm). The secondary feathers and tail feathers grow 10-14 inches (25-36 cm). Hair grows about 6 inches (15 cm) a year. If the 7 “stretches” of time were years, the king could have grown his hair double the length of an eagle’s longest feathers.
Eagle claws are about two inches (5 cm) long. Fingernails grow about 3.5 millimeters a month, or about 1/8th of an inch. That’s 42 millimeters a year, or about 1.7 inches. In seven years the fingernails would grow a curly 292 millimeters, or 11.5 inches, which would make it hard to eat a footlong chilidog with elegant grace.
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