Daniel 4:13

13 " 'I was looking in the vision of my head [as I lay] on my bed, and look, a watcher, and [a] holy [one], came down from heaven.

Daniel 4:13 Meaning and Commentary

Daniel 4:13

I saw in the visions of my head upon my bed
The king goes on to relate what other things presented themselves to his imagination in his dream, concerning this tree which signified himself: and, behold, a watcher:
which Saadiah interprets of Bath Kol; but Aben Ezra, Jarchi, Jacchiades, and Ben Melech of an angel; so called because incorporeal, ever watches, and never sleeps, and is always attentive to, and observant of, the commands of God so the angels in the fragment of Enoch are called "egregori", watchers; and the same word is here used in the Alexandrian copy. Some ^F11 render it "an enemy", "an holy one": according to the sense of the word in ( 1 Samuel 28:16 ) , and produce it to show that angels are called enemies: and an Holy One;
one of the holy angels that never sinned, nor left their first estate, but continued in it; in which they are established by Christ, and are impeccable; are perfectly pure and holy in their nature and actions: such an one came down from heaven; the place of their abode, as it seemed to Nebuchadnezzar in his dream.

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FOOTNOTES:

F11 Lex. Kabalist. in voce (bwya) p. 54, 55.

Daniel 4:13 In-Context

11 The tree grew and it became strong, and its height reached to heaven, and {it was visible to the end of the whole earth}.

12 Its foliage [was] beautiful, and its fruit abundant, and in it [was] provision for all. Under it the animals of the field sought shade, and in its branches the birds of heaven nested, and from it all the living beings were fed.

13 " 'I was looking in the vision of my head [as I lay] on my bed, and look, a watcher, and [a] holy [one], came down from heaven.

14 He cried {aloud} and so he said: "Cut down the tree and chop off its branches; shake off its foliage and scatter its fruit. Let the animals flee from under it, and the birds from its branches.

15 But the stump of its roots leave in the earth, {along with} a band of iron and bronze; [leave it] in the grass of the field. And in the dew of heaven let it be watered, and with the animals let his lot [be] in [the] grass of the earth.

Footnotes

• [a]. Or "angelic being"