Daniel 4:31

31 While the words were still in the king's mouth, a voice came from heaven: "O King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is declared: The kingdom has departed from you!

Daniel 4:31 Meaning and Commentary

Daniel 4:31

While the word was in the king's mouth, there fell a voice
from heaven
Before the king had done speaking in the above boasting manner, an articulate voice from heaven was heard by him, and all about him, formed by the angels, and much like what the Jews call Bath Kol; see ( Acts 12:21-23 ) , so Abydenus ^F7, in the account he gives of Nebuchadnezzar's oration to the people, relates, that when the king had spoke it, (paracrhma hfanisto) , immediately he disappeared:

saying, O King Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken, the kingdom is
departed from thee;
that is, the administration of it; for he was not deposed, or declared to be no longer king; his office was not taken away from him, and another king set upon the throne; only the administration was taken into other hands, either of his wife or son, or his nobles; he being unfit for it, till such time as his reason returned to him.

---

FOOTNOTES:

F7 Apud Euseb. ut supra. (Praepar. Evangel. l. 9. c. 41. p. 457.)

Daniel 4:31 In-Context

29 At the end of twelve months he was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon,

30 and the king said, "Is this not magnificent Babylon, which I have built as a royal capital by my mighty power and for my glorious majesty?"

31 While the words were still in the king's mouth, a voice came from heaven: "O King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is declared: The kingdom has departed from you!

32 You shall be driven away from human society, and your dwelling shall be with the animals of the field. You shall be made to eat grass like oxen, and seven times shall pass over you, until you have learned that the Most High has sovereignty over the kingdom of mortals and gives it to whom he will."

33 Immediately the sentence was fulfilled against Nebuchadnezzar. He was driven away from human society, ate grass like oxen, and his body was bathed with the dew of heaven, until his hair grew as long as eagles' feathers and his nails became like birds' claws.