Daniel 4:17

17. “The sentence is by the decree of the watchers” (R.V.). These are the angels referred to in Daniel 4:13, who are messengers of Jehovah, and are empowered to announce his decree (Daniel 4:24). The reference to these “watchers” (compare Daniel 4:23) is omitted from the LXX., and sounds very much like the late Talmudic distinctions between various classes in the angelic hierarchy. Thomson, therefore, considers this verse an interpolation. He thinks the statement that the kingdom is to be taken after Nebuchadnezzar by the “lowest of men” is a reference to Antiochus Epiphanes, the “vile person” of Daniel 11:21. This entire section, however, insists upon the superiority of Nebuchadnezzar and the comparative and increasing degradation of all his successors (Daniel 2:38-39; Daniel 5:25-27). Ewald has an interesting practical remark on this verse, saying that any man who resists the divine will is, after all, ultimately but an animal (Psalms 32:9-10), having fallen from his original glory to the beastly level.