Dan 4:31-34 | JFB | STEP | 31. While, &c.-- in the very act of speaking, so that there could be no doubt as to the connection between the crime and the punishment. So , . O king ... to thee it is spoken-- Notwithstanding thy kingly power, to thee thy doom is now spoken, there is to be no further respite.

‏ Daniel 4:31-34

31. While, &c.--in the very act of speaking, so that there could be no doubt as to the connection between the crime and the punishment. So Lu 12:19, 20.

O king ... to thee it is spoken--Notwithstanding thy kingly power, to thee thy doom is now spoken, there is to be no further respite.

33. driven from men--as a maniac fancying himself a wild beast. It is possible, a conspiracy of his nobles may have co-operated towards his having been "driven" forth as an outcast.

hairs ... eagles' feathers--matted together, as the hair-like, thick plumage of the ossifraga eagle. The "nails," by being left uncut for years, would become like "claws."

34. lifted up mine eyes unto heaven--whence the "voice" had issued (Da 4:31) at the beginning of his visitation. Sudden mental derangement often has the effect of annihilating the whole interval, so that, when reason returns, the patient remembers only the event that immediately preceded his insanity. Nebuchadnezzar's looking up towards heaven was the first symptom of his "understanding" having "returned." Before, like the beasts, his eyes had been downward to the earth. Now, like Jonah's (Jon 2:1, 2, 4) out of the fish's belly, they are lifted up to heaven in prayer. He turns to Him that smiteth him (Is 9:13), with the faint glimmer of reason left to him, and owns God's justice in punishing him.

praised ... him--Praise is a sure sign of a soul spiritually healed (Psa 116:12, 14; Mr 5:15, 18, 19).

I ... honoured him--implying that the cause of his chastisement was that he had before robbed God of His honor.

everlasting dominion--not temporary or mutable, as a human king's dominion.