Daniel 4:9

9 its leaves were fair, and its fruit abundant, and in it was meat for all; and under it the wild beasts of the field took shelter, and the birds of the sky lodged in the branches of it, and all flesh was fed of it.

Daniel 4:9 Meaning and Commentary

Daniel 4:9

O Belteshazzar, master of the magicians
So he called him, either because he excelled them in knowledge, and was greater than they, as Jacchiades; though not of their rank and order, which Daniel would have scorned to have been among, and reckoned of; so that this would have been no compliment, but a grief unto him; or because he was appointed by the king chief over them, and even over their governors; (See Gill on Daniel 2:48): because I know that the spirit of the holy gods is in thee;
(See Gill on Daniel 4:8); and no secret troubleth thee;
any ways perplexes thy mind to find it out; it is easy to thee to come at; it gives thee no manner of trouble to get knowledge of it; there is no secret hidden from thee; all is plain before thee, and with the utmost facility canst thou reveal it: tell me the visions of my dream that I have seen;
that is, the meaning of them; for the king remembered this his dream, and afterwards tells it very particularly: and the interpretation of it;
it may be rendered, "that is, the interpretation of it" ^F8; for that only was what the king wanted.

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FOOTNOTES:

F8 (hrvpw) "id est, interpretationem ejus", Junius & Tremellius, Broughtonus, Michaelis.

Daniel 4:9 In-Context

7 I had a vision upon my bed; and behold a tree in the midst of the earth, and its height was great.

8 The tree grew large and strong, and its height reached to the sky, and its extent to the extremity of the whole earth:

9 its leaves were fair, and its fruit abundant, and in it was meat for all; and under it the wild beasts of the field took shelter, and the birds of the sky lodged in the branches of it, and all flesh was fed of it.

10 I beheld in the night vision upon my bed, and, behold, a watcher and an holy one came down from heaven and cried aloud, and thus he said,

11 Cut down the tree, and pluck off its branches, and shake off its leaves, and scatter its fruit: let the wild beasts be removed from under it, and the birds from its branches.