Daniel 4:28-37

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Daniel 4:28-33

We have here Nebuchadnezzar's dream accomplished, and Daniel's application of it to him justified and confirmed. How he took it we are not told, whether he was pleased with Daniel or displeased; but here we have, I. God's patience with him: All this came upon him, but not till twelve months after (Dan. 4:29), so long there was a lengthening of his tranquility, though it does not appear that he broke off his sins, or showed any mercy to the poor captives, for this was still God's quarrel with... read more

Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Daniel 4:34-37

We have here Nebuchadnezzar's recovery from his distraction, and his return to his right mind, at the end of the days prefixed, that is, of the seven years. So long he continued a monument of God's justice and a trophy of his victory over the children of pride, and he was made more so by being struck mad than if he had been in an instant struck dead with a thunderbolt; yet it was a mercy to him that he was kept alive, for while there is life there is hope that we may yet praise God, as he did... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Daniel 4:28

All this came upon the king Nebuchadnezzar. All that was signified in the dream, his madness, the removal of him from the administration of government, and the brutal life he lived for seven years; for this was not a mere parable or fiction, as some have thought, framed to describe the state and punishment of a proud man, but was a real fact; though it is not made mention of by any historians, excepting what has been observed before out of Abydenus F14 Apud Eubseb. Praepar. Evangel. l.... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Daniel 4:29

At the end of twelve months ,.... After the dream, and the interpretation of it; which, according to Bishop Usher F19 Annales Vet. Test. A. M. 3435. , Dean Prideaux F20 Connexion, &c.; part. 1. p. 105. , and Mr. Whiston F21 Chronological Tables, cent. 10. , was in the year of the world 3435 A.M., and before Christ 569, and in the thirty sixth year of his reign: one whole year, a space of time, either which God gave him to repent in, or which he obtained by attending for... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Daniel 4:30

The king spake and said ,.... Either within himself, or to his nobles about him; or perhaps to foreigners he had took up with him hither to show the grandeur of the city: is not this great Babylon, that I have built ; he might well call it great, for, according to Aristotle F3 Politic. l. 3. c. 3. , it was more like a country than a city; it was, as Pliny F4 Nat. Hist. l. 6. c. 26. says, sixty miles in compass within the walls; and Herodotus F5 Clio, sive l. 1. c. 178. ... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Daniel 4:31

While the word was in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven ,.... Before the king had done speaking in the above boasting manner, an articulate voice from heaven was heard by him, and all about him, formed by the angels, and much like what the Jews call Bath Kol; see Acts 12:21 , so Abydenus F7 Apud Euseb. ut supra. (Praepar. Evangel. l. 9. c. 41. p. 457.) , in the account he gives of Nebuchadnezzar's oration to the people, relates, that when the king had spoke it, ... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Daniel 4:32

And they shall drive thee from men ,.... According to the interpretation of the dream given by Daniel, which this voice from heaven confirms; See Gill on Daniel 4:25 , where the same things are said as here. read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Daniel 4:33

The same hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar ,.... Whence it appears that this was a true history, and a matter of fact; and not a parable or allegory, as Origen thought, describing the fall of Lucifer or Satan; but relates what befell Nebuchadnezzar himself: nor was the change real as to soul and body; for then he would not have been the same person, not Nebuchadnezzar, and so not he himself punished, but the beast into which he was changed: and though there was a strange... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Daniel 4:34

And at the end of the days ,.... Of the time fixed in the dream; that is, at the end of seven years, as Jarchi rightly interprets it; this according to Bishop Usher F14 Annales Vet. Test. A. M. 3442. , Dean Prideaux F15 Connexium, &c.; part. 1. p. 106. , and Mr. Whiston F16 Chronological Tables, cent. 10. , was in the year of the world 3442 A.M., and before Christ 563, in the forty second year of his reign; after which he lived but one year, reigning from the death of... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Daniel 4:35

And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing ,.... That is, by the most high God, in comparison of him; and that not only the common people, but magistrates, princes, and kings, and even so great a monarch as Nebuchadnezzar; they are like mere nonentities, nothing as to existence, substance, greatness, glory, and duration, when compared with him: for this is to be understood not absolutely as in themselves; for as such they are something; their bodies are something in their... read more

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