God’s Word for You
Daniel 4:33-35 The fall and rise of Nebuchadnezzar
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Saturday, October 11, 2025
33 What had been said about Nebuchadnezzar was fulfilled immediately. He was driven away from people and ate grass the way cattle do. His body was drenched with the dew from the sky until his hair grew long like eagles’ feathers and his nails like the claws of birds.
This verse expands on the downfall of the king. It happened “immediately,” or “in that moment.” He was driven away from people. This is the Aramaic verb tarad, in the peil stem, which is causative like the Hebrew niphal. This is worth pointing out because it tells us that the king was forced out of the palace by men, by people who had been his servants and perhaps his own family. They knew that for everyone’s good he could not remain where he was. He needed special care and for the best interests of the nation, he needed to be out of sight.
1, Any visitor, envoy, or spy from another nation that saw him or heard about his condition would think, “Babylon is ready to fall.” To preserve what Nebuchadnezzar had built up and worked for, he had to be removed from sight.
2, His presence in the court in his wild state put his life in danger. If one or two trusted servants saw him and took care of him in his wild madness, that was one thing. But if he were left in his palace, roaming the hallways on all fours, making animal noises and behaving like a creature (even a creature so docile as a cow), someone might think to themselves, “He’s better off dead than alive.” For his own safety, he had to be removed from sight.
3, He could not have been fed or looked after properly on wooden or stone floors. Out in the grass, his knees and hands would become calloused, but he could be fed, and a madman’s hygiene is not easy to maintain. When I was a boy, a kind and patient woman from my church worked at a correctional facility (prison) where prisoners with mental health issues were kept. She cleaned the cell of a famous and insane murderer until he died. His hygienic needs were awful, and something she described to me only once. Hers was a thankless, even a sad task, but she was happy that he was where he was, and that in a sense, she was doing her part to be sure he did not hurt anyone else for the rest of his life.
4, Nebuchadnezzar was driven away, finally, because God proclaimed he would be driven away. This was the proclamation of the angel (4:14) and of Daniel in his interpretation (4:25). It was the command of God’s own voice from heaven (4:32). Therefore it could not be avoided. What was decreed would surely take place; this is the power of the word of God.
34 Then, at the end of that time, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven, and my sanity was restored. Then I praised the Most High; I honored and glorified him who lives forever. His dominion is an eternal dominion; his kingdom endures from generation to generation. 35 All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him: “What have you done?”
At the end of the “seven times,” Nebuchadnezzar’s mind cleared. He was Nebuchadnezzar once again. His hair would be cut. Someone cut his nails. Clothes were brought to him. We can imagine that he would have been given water (or wine) right away. If there were cuts or scrapes or other wounds that needed tending, this was finally done. But before any of this was done, the man who had once been king looked upward to God (the real meaning here for “heaven” in verse 34). He gave God praise right away. Failing to do this is what had brought about his downfall, and now he mended his ways.
He proclaims God’s eternal nature: “His dominion is an eternal dominion.”
He proclaims that God watches over mankind and that he is not absent, for his kingdom “endures from generation to generation.” He does not abandon anyone, but gives his grace to mankind generation upon generation.
Then the king proclaims the smallness of mankind. “All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing.” There is nothing within any person that makes them able to approach God apart from the righteousness that comes from outside of mankind, from Christ alone. Without the Lord God and Jesus Christ his son, “all the people of the earth are nothing,” including Nebuchadnezzar.
The king proclaims God’s omnipotence and the supreme authority of his holy will. “He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth.” The powers of heaven are the angels, beings that the Babylonians believed in but did not really understand, thinking that they were lesser divinities rather than servants who gladly bowed down before God and served him as well as protecting mankind.
He also holds no grudge or ill-will about what happened to him. He accepts and even thanks God for what happened to him: “He does as he pleases with… the peoples of the earth,” including himself. He now truly knows his place.
And finally he also says, “No one can hold back his hand or say to him: ‘What have you done?’” It is impossible to keep God from doing what he wills to do. It is also impossible for a mere man to question God in an accusatory way. We can ask God for help, ask him to reveal his intentions to us. But to accuse the Lord? This is one of the errors that Satan made and still makes. It is not for us to pick up that piece of rotten fruit.
The king’s restoration is a little glimpse of how we will be made new and whole again in the day of the resurrection. All of the corruption that ravaged us in this lifetime and even in the grave will be undone by a word from our Lord Jesus. He will call us out of our graves and we will rise, to live with him forever in Paradise.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.