Daniel 4:16

16 'Sea cambiado su corazón de hombre, y séale dado corazón de bestia, y pasen sobre él siete tiempos .

Daniel 4:16 Meaning and Commentary

Daniel 4:16

Let his heart be changed from man's
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 ) ( 12:7 ) , 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 Heathen writers, only Abydenus ^F14 says, that being under a divine afflatus, he foretold the destruction of the Babylonian empire by a Persian mule (meaning Cyrus), and by a Mede, and immediately, (hfanisto) , he disappeared; which some have understood of this time of his madness, which quickly followed upon this dream.

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FOOTNOTES:

F14 Apud Euseb. Praepar. Evangel. l. 9. c. 41. p. 457.

Daniel 4:16 In-Context

14 "Clamando fuertemente, dijo así: "Derribad el árbol, cortad sus ramas, arrancad su follaje, desparramad su fruto; huyan las bestias que están debajo de él, y las aves de sus ramas.

15 'Pero dejad en tierra el tocón con sus raíces, con ataduras de hierro y bronce entre la hierba del campo; que se empape con el rocío del cielo, y comparta con las bestias la hierba de la tierra.

16 'Sea cambiado su corazón de hombre, y séale dado corazón de bestia, y pasen sobre él siete tiempos .

17 'Esta sentencia es por decreto de los vigilantes, y la orden es por decisión de los santos, con el fin de que sepan los vivientes que el Altísimo domina sobre el reino de los hombres, y se lo da a quien le place, y pone sobre él al más humilde de los hombres'.

18 "Este es el sueño que yo, el rey Nabucodonosor, he tenido. Y tú, Beltsasar, dime su interpretación, ya que ninguno de los sabios de mi reino ha podido darme a conocer su interpretación; pero tú puedes, porque el espíritu de los dioses santos está en ti."

Footnotes

• [a] I.e., aos