That they shall drive thee from men
From conversation with men, as unfit for it; from his court and palace, from his nobles and princes. Saadiah interprets this of the angels: it may be rendered impersonally or passively, as in ( Daniel 4:33 ) , "thou shalt be driven from men" F18; not by his family, his wife and children; or by his nobles, who are afterwards said to seek him; but by the most high God, and to show his power over him; and it may be by means of his ministering angels; or he was driven by his own fancy and imagination, which was suffered of God to prevail over him, judging himself not a man, but a beast; and so it was most agreeable to him to live with beasts, and not men:
and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field;
in the open air, or in some den and cavern, instead of being in his court, and among his nobles; a strange change of condition indeed! and in which he was preserved by divine Providence:
and they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen;
imagining himself to be a beast, he should choose this sort of food, and eat it, and feed upon it with a gust, as if he had really been one; and besides, having no other food, would be obliged to eat this, as well as his degenerate and depraved imagination led him to it:
and they shall wet thee with the dew of heaven;
strip him of his clothes, and leave him naked; so that he should have nothing to shelter him from the dew and rain, and other inclemencies of the heavens; and this his frenzy might lead him to do of himself:
and seven times shall pass over thee;
which some understand of weeks, others of months, others of the seasons of winter and summer; but it is best to interpret it of seven whole years; (See Gill on Daniel 4:16):
till thou know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and
giveth it to whomsoever he will;
this was done, as for the instruction of men in general, so of Nebuchadnezzar in particular; that his proud heart and haughty spirit might be brought down, and be made to acknowledge that there was a God higher than he, that judgeth in the earth, and that rules and overrules, and disposes of all things in it according to his will and pleasure; see ( Daniel 4:17 )
The Brenton translation of the Septuagint is in the public domain.