Daniel 4:31

31 These words hadn't even left the king's mouth when a voice came from heaven: "You, King Nebuchadnezzar, are now informed: Kingship is taken away 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.

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FOOTNOTES:

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

Daniel 4:31 In-Context

29 Twelve months later, he was walking on the roof of the royal palace in Babylon.

30 The king declared, "Isn't this Babylon, the magnificent city that I built as the royal house by my own mighty strength and for my own majestic glory?"

31 These words hadn't even left the king's mouth when a voice came from heaven: "You, King Nebuchadnezzar, are now informed: Kingship is taken away from you.

32 You will be driven away from other humans and will live with the wild animals. You will eat grass like cattle, and seven periods of time will pass over you until you acknowledge that the Most High dominates human kingship, giving it to anyone he wants."

33 Nebuchadnezzar's sentence was immediately carried out. He was driven away from other humans and ate grass like cattle. Dew from heaven washed his body until he grew hair like eagles' feathers and claws like a bird.