Daniel 4:16

4:1-18 The beginning and end of this chapter lead us to hope, that Nebuchadnezzar was a monument of the power of Divine grace, and of the riches of Divine mercy. After he was recovered from his madness, he told to distant places, and wrote down for future ages, how God had justly humbled and graciously restored him. When a sinner comes to himself, he will promote the welfare of others, by making known the wondrous mercy of God. Nebuchadnezzar, before he related the Divine judgments upon him for his pride, told the warnings he had in a dream or vision. The meaning was explained to him. The person signified, was to be put down from honour, and to be deprived of the use of his reason seven years. This is surely the sorest of all temporal judgments. Whatever outward affliction God is pleased to lay upon us, we have cause to bear it patiently, and to be thankful that he continues the use of our reason, and the peace of our consciences. Yet if the Lord should see fit by such means to keep a sinner from multiplying crimes, or a believer from dishonouring his name, even the dreadful prevention would be far preferable to the evil conduct. God has determined it, as a righteous Judge, and the angels in heaven applaud. Not that the great God needs the counsel or concurrence of the angels, but it denotes the solemnity of this sentence. The demand is by the word of the holy ones, God's suffering people: when the oppressed cry to God, he will hear.

Not as to the substance, but as to the quality: and let a beast's heart be given unto him; from a human heart, let it be changed into a brutal one; let him be deprived of the use of reason, and have no more exercise of it than a brute has; let him be wholly governed by the animal senses, and behave and act as a beast does; be as senseless, stupid, and savage, as that: and such a heart Nebuchadnezzar had; not that his rational soul departed from him, then he must have died; but the powers of it were sadly vitiated and depraved; his understanding, imagining himself to be a beast, not a man; his judgment, in not distinguishing the actions of a beast from those of a man; his memory of things past utterly failed; he forgot what he had been, and was; his will, inclination, and fancy, were towards brutal things, and ran upon deserts, fields, and grass; and he shunned the society of men: and let seven times pass over him: while in this condition; let him remain so long in it; not seven months, as Abarbinel, and others; nor seven half years, or three years and a half, as some in Theodoret; dividing the year into two parts, summer and winter; and suppose, that seven of these seasons passed over him before he recovered; but seven years are meant, as Jarchi, Saadiah, and Jacchiades, as the phrase is used in Daniel 7:25, so many years the temple of Solomon was building, which Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed, and so long this madness must remain upon him: no notice is taken of this affair by

(16) Here the metaphor of Daniel 4:15 is entirely discontinued, and a man is mentioned. Seven times.—On the use of the number “seven” see Note on Daniel 3:19. The period intended by “time” is very uncertain: from the use of the word in Judges 17:10 it has been inferred that “years” are intended. This is purely conjectural. It is more probable that the word is used to signify some definite period of time, which, as appears from the words “over him,” was in some way marked out by the heavenly bodies. The word “time” is used by Daniel in the same sense (Daniel 7:25). (Comp. Daniel 12:7, where, however, a different word is employed.)

Let him live seven years as a beast in man’s shape, among beasts of the field, let him become brutish, without human sense and understanding: and this appeared much also in his outward shape; nails like claws, and hair like feathers. Some think that he was truly changed into a beast, but this cannot be, for then the Chaldeans would never more have owned or restored him. Others judge that he was not changed at all but in appearance only to the beholders and in their fancies; but this is a false construction of God’s works, when the Scripture saith it was truly done. It is probable he was mute, and bellowed only, that he went naked, and bowed, and ate grass among the beasts, with whom his converse was: a dreadful example upon the greatest man on earth, for his brutish and raging tyranny, and inhuman carriage, abasing himself, and abusing his honours and great prerogatives to wickedness and savage cruelty, to be thus forsaken of God and men, and to be made a prodigy and spectacle to the world, and that upon record to all generations.

16 . his heart ] i.e. his intelligence: let him receive the understanding of a beast (imagine himself an animal). The heart, in Hebrew psychology, is the seat not (as commonly with us) of tender feeling (a ‘heartless’ man), but of the intellect: cf. Hosea 7:11 , ‘a silly dove, without heart ,’ i.e. without understanding, Jeremiah 5:21 , ‘a foolish people, without understanding,’ lit. without heart. seven times ] i.e. seven years : cf. Daniel 7:25 , Daniel 12:7 (Heb. mô‘çd ); Revelation 12:14 ( καιρός ). With ‘pass over,’ comp. 1 Chronicles 29:30 .

Verse 16. - Let his heart be changed from man's, and let a beast's heart be given unto him; and let seven times pass ever him. The Septuagint rendering seems to be taken from the previous verse, "And let his body be changed by the dew of heaven, and let him be pastured with them seven years." It seems difficult to imagine, either, on the one hand, לִבְבֵהּ ( libebayh ) changed into פִגְרָהּ ( pi g erah ), the word by which Paulus Tellensis translates σῶμα , though it suggests "carcase," or into נִדְנֵה ( nid nayh ), the word used in Daniel 7:15 ; or, on the other, that either of these should be read lebab. At the same time, ל and נ are not unlike in old inscriptions, nor ב unlike ד ; any indistinctness in the third letter might easily lead to a mistake. It is not impossible that some of the words in the latter part of the previous verse have been modified from some word meaning "body." It is equally difficult to guess what word has been read by the Septuagint translator instead of יַחְלְפוּן ( yah-lephoon ), "let them pass over." The greater brevity of the Septuagint is in its favour. Theodotion is, as usual, in closer agreement with the Massoretic; he renders min-anaosha or anosha ' for ἀπὸ τῶν ἀνθρώπων , "from men" - a possible translation, and one favoured by some recent commentators. The Peshitta agrees quite with the received text. According to the received text, the main change was mental - the human heart is removed, and the heart of a beast given.