Daniel 4:35

4:28-37 Pride and self-conceit are sins that beset great men. They are apt to take that glory to themselves which is due to God only. While the proud word was in the king's mouth, the powerful word came from God. His understanding and his memory were gone, and all the powers of the rational soul were broken. How careful we ought to be, not to do any thing which may provoke God to put us out of our senses! God resists the proud. Nebuchadnezzar would be more than a man, but God justly makes him less than a man. We may learn to believe concerning God, that the most high God lives for ever, and that his kingdom is like himself, everlasting, and universal. His power cannot be resisted. When men are brought to honour God, by confession of sin and acknowledging his sovereignty, then, and not till then, they may expect that God will honour them; not only restore them to the dignity they lost by the sin of the first Adam, but add excellent majesty to them, from the righteousness and grace of the Second Adam. Afflictions shall last no longer than till they have done the work for which they were sent. There can be no reasonable doubt that Nebuchadnezzar was a true penitent, and an accepted believer. It is thought that he did not live more than a year after his restoration. Thus the Lord knows how to abase those that walk in pride, but gives grace and consolation to the humble, broken-hearted sinner who calls upon Him.

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 original, and especially in their make, form, and constitution, and even in their dissolution; and their souls are yet more valuable, are of more worth than the whole world, being immaterial and immortal; but comparatively with respect to God, in whom they live, and move, and have that being they have, and by whom they are supported in it; al whose glory and grandeur is fading and passing away, and continuance is but very short; and all nothing with God, the Being of beings, whose glory is inconceivable, and with whom a thousand years are as one day, and who is from everlasting to everlasting: and this meant chiefly of the rational inhabitants of the earth; not of the beasts of the field, the cattle on a thousand hills, and the innumerable reptiles of the earth, which also are the inhabitants of it; but of men, the principal ones, and of all of these, high and low, rich and poor, bond and free; not as in their own account, and that of others; for they are something in their own esteem, and seem so in the eyes of others, who judge according to the outward a

And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his {s} will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou? (s) He confesses God's will to be the rule of all justice, and a most perfect law, by which he governs both man and angels and devils, so that none ought to murmur or ask a reason for his doings, but only to stand content with them and give him the glory.

A due consideration of God’s infinite greatness makes the creature appear as nothing in comparison of God. Creatures are nothing to help, nothing to hurt, nothing absolutely, nothing in duration, nothing solid and substantial, nothing without dependence, and influence, and support from God. God is I am, and there is none else. Verily every man at his best estate is altogether vanity. Selah, Psalm 39:5 . Yea, less than vanity, and nothing, Psalm 62:9 Isaiah 40:17 . He doeth according to his will, Psalm 115:3 . God only is arbitrary. In the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth ; being the Lord of hosts, and the only absolute and universal Monarch of the world. None can stay his hand; he is irresistible and uncontrollable, Job 9:12 Isaiah 45:9 Romans 11:33-36 .

35. all … as nothing—(Isa 40:15, 17). according to his will in … heaven—(Ps 115:3; 135:6; Mt 6:10; Eph 1:11). army—the heavenly hosts, angels and starry orbs (compare Isa 24:21). none … stay his hand—literally, "strike His hand." Image from striking the hand of another, to check him in doing anything (Isa 43:13; 45:9). What doest thou—(Job 9:12; Ro 9:20).

35 . are reputed as nothing ] better, are as persons of no account (Bevan). The expression is in part, no doubt, suggested by Isaiah 40:17 (where the verb rendered ‘counted’ is the same as that which in the partic. is here rendered ‘reputed’). and he doeth &c.] He rules alike in heaven and earth. the army of heaven ] The Aram. equivalent (representing it also in the Targums) for the Heb. ‘host of heaven’—an expression which denotes sometimes the angels ( 1 Kings 22:19 ; Nehemiah 9:6 b ), sometimes the stars ( Deuteronomy 4:19 , Jeremiah 33:22 , al. ; cf. Nehemiah 9:6 a )[246]. Here angelic beings, as opposed to the ‘inhabitants of the earth,’ are doubtless meant: cf., for the general thought, Psalm 103:20 . [246] See the art. Host of Heaven in Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible . stay his hand ] strike his hand , viz. for the purpose of arresting it. The same idiom occurs in the Targ. of Ecclesiastes 8:4 b (perhaps borrowed from here); it occurs also in the Talm. more than once, in the sense of to forbid , and (with another word for strike ) in Arabic as well. See Ges. Thes. p. 782; Levy, NHWB [247] iii. 72. [247] HWB. M. Levy, Neuhebräisches und Chaldäisches Wörterbuch , 1876–89. or say unto him, What hast thou done? ] Cf. Isaiah 45:9 ; Job 9:12 ; Ecclesiastes 8:4 b .

Verse 35. - And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou? The rendering of the Septuagint here is very difficult to follow, from the state of confusion in which the text is. The verse that comes next in order is very short," At that time my kingdom was set up, and my glory was restored to me." This is a condensed statement of what is recorded in the following verse (ver. 36; 33 Massoretic), and we shall consider it in that connection. The verse which succeeds suits more the conclusion of such a letter or proclamation as is here represented, so far as form goes, though the matter shows traces of exaggeration and amplification natural to the Jew. At the same time, it bears a resemblance to the last verse of this chapter, according to the Massoretes, only greatly amplified. It may thus be best to regard this verse as not present in the Septuagint text. Theodotion and the Peshitta agree with the Massoretic text. The statement here is true, but Jewish, not Babylonian, in colour. This, along with its absence from the Septuagint, leads us to believe it to be the insertion of a Jewish scribe. On the other hand, it looks like a statement in brief of what we find expanded in Isaiah 40 . and elsewhere. If brevity is to be regarded as an evidence of antiquity, this passage might be taken as the more ancient.