Daniel 4:34-35

4:34 But at the end of the appointed time ¹  I, Nebuchadnezzar, looked up ²  toward heaven, and my sanity returned to me.

I extolled the Most High,

and I praised and glorified the one who lives forever.

For his authority is an everlasting authority,

and his kingdom extends from one generation to the next.

4:35 All the inhabitants of the earth are regarded as nothing. ³ 

He does as he wishes with the army of heaven

and with those who inhabit the earth.

No one slaps ⁴  his hand

and says to him, ‘What have you done?’

Daniel 5:18-23

5:18 As for you, O king, the most high God bestowed on your father Nebuchadnezzar a kingdom, greatness, honor, and majesty. ⁵  5:19 Due to the greatness that he bestowed on him, all peoples, nations, and language groups were trembling with fear ⁶  before him. He killed whom he wished, he spared ⁷  whom he wished, he exalted whom he wished, and he brought low whom he wished. 5:20 And when his mind ⁸  became arrogant ⁹  and his spirit filled with pride, he was deposed from his royal throne and his honor was removed from him. 5:21 He was driven from human society, his mind ¹⁰  was changed to that of an animal, he lived ¹¹  with the wild donkeys, he was fed grass like oxen, and his body became damp with the dew of the sky, until he came to understand that the most high God rules over human kingdoms, and he appoints over them whomever he wishes.

5:22 “But you, his son ¹²  Belshazzar, have not humbled yourself, ¹³  although you knew all this. 5:23 Instead, you have exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven. You brought before you the vessels from his temple, and you and your nobles, together with your wives and concubines, drank wine from them. You praised the gods of silver, gold, bronze, iron, wood, and stone – gods ¹⁴  that cannot see or hear or comprehend! But you have not glorified the God who has in his control ¹⁵  your very breath and all your ways!

[4:34]  ¹ tn Aram “days.”

[4:34]  ² tn Aram “lifted up my eyes.”

[4:35]  ³ tc The present translation reads כְּלָא (kÿla’), with many medieval Hebrew MSS, rather than כְּלָה (kÿlah) of BHS.

[4:35]  ⁴ tn Aram “strikes against.”

[5:18]  ⁵ tn Or “royal greatness and majestic honor,” if the four terms are understood as a double hendiadys.

[5:19]  ⁶ tn Aram “were trembling and fearing.” This can be treated as a hendiadys, “were trembling with fear.”

[5:19]  ⁷ tn Aram “let live.” This Aramaic form is the aphel participle of חַיָה(khayah, “to live”). Theodotion and the Vulgate mistakenly take the form to be from מְחָא (mÿkha’, “to smite”).

[5:20]  ⁸ tn Aram “heart.”

[5:20]  ⁹ sn The point of describing Nebuchadnezzar as arrogant is that he had usurped divine prerogatives, and because of his immense arrogance God had dealt decisively with him.

[5:21]  ¹⁰ tn Aram “heart.”

[5:21]  ¹¹ tn Aram “his dwelling.”

[5:22]  ¹² tn Or “descendant”; or “successor.”

[5:22]  ¹³ tn Aram “your heart.”

[5:23]  ¹⁴ tn Aram “which.”

[5:23]  ¹⁵ tn Aram “in whose hand [are].”