Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents

4:1-3 The narrative begins at the end of the story, with the letter of praise to God that Nebuchadnezzar wrote after his recovery. The letter is addressed to peoples, nations, and languages, the same group summoned to bow down to the golden image (see 3:7). The "signs" and "wonders" the Lord has performed certainly include the fiery furnace, yet the key difference is that now Nebuchadnezzar speaks of signs and wonders that the Most High God has done for me (cf. note on 3:28). From being a persecutor of the faithful, Nebuchadnezzar has himself become a witness to the faith.

4:7 This time Nebuchadnezzar tells the wise men of Babylon the dream--perhaps Nebuchadnezzar was not worried about their honesty since he expected that Daniel could correct them if they tried to deceive him.

4:10-16 In this dream, Nebuchadnezzar saw an enormous tree whose top touched the heavens. While Nebuchadnezzar was looking on, however, a watcher, a holy one (an angel commissioned to carry out God's judgment on earth) came down and ordered that the tree be cut down. The tree was not utterly destroyed, however: its stump was to remain in the ground for seven periods of time (the text does not explain the length of time, but "seven" signifies completion and most ancient and modern scholars have argued it was "seven years"), bound in iron and bronze.

4:22 In his interpretation, Daniel identified the enormous tree as Nebuchadnezzar: it is you, O king. The image of a cosmic tree, the center and pivotal point of the universe, acknowledged Nebuchadnezzar's power and might.

4:23 The image of the cosmic tree reaching to the heavens (v. 11) is reminiscent of the Tower of Babel (see Gen. 11:4). Such hubris inevitably ends in disaster, and the divine lumberjack would bring the mighty tree crashing to the ground, removing it from its place of influence and glory. Nebuchadnezzar would not only lose his power and glory but also his rationality (which distinguishes him as human), so that he would behave like the wild animals. The one who thought of himself in godlike terms would become beastlike so he could learn that he is merely human after all. When the tree was cut down, the stump and the roots were allowed to remain, bound in iron and bronze, possibly suggesting that Nebuchadnezzar's kingdom would be protected and then established after he learned to honor the true God.

4:25 There was hope of restoration after Nebuchadnezzar had experienced a full period of judgment, seven periods of time, in this animal-like state. When Nebuchadnezzar acknowledged that God controls the universe and human kingdoms and that he (Nebuchadnezzar) does not, his kingdom would be restored to him. Daniel proclaimed God's sovereignty over the affairs of nations, even over Babylon--the greatest nation in the world at that time--by affirming what Nebuchadnezzar had already heard in his dream (v. 17; cf. vv. 32, 35), that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will.

4:27 Therefore, O king . . . break off your sins by practicing righteousness, and . . . showing mercy to the oppressed. Daniel (a Jew who believed in the one true God) was willing to tell Nebuchadnezzar (a pagan king) that he should conform to moral standards that Daniel had learned from God. This appeal to repentance implied that the fate depicted for Nebuchadnezzar in the dream was not inevitable, and it provided Nebuchadnezzar with an opportunity to repent of his pride. If Nebuchadnezzar humbled himself, God would not need to humble him further. Even pagan rulers are accountable to the God of the Bible (cf. notes on Ps. 82:1-4; Prov. 31:1-9; Mark 6:18; Acts 24:25).