Biblion Bible Commentary
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I Lifted Up My Eyes to Heaven
Daniel 4:34-37
34 At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up my eyes to heaven, and my understanding returned to me; and I blessed the Most High, and I praised and honored him who lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom from generation to generation. · WEB
Reason returns the moment he looks up, and the restored king ends his own decree with the two sentences that cost him everything to learn.
At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up my eyes to heaven, and my understanding returned to me Daniel 4:34.
The first-person voice comes back with the mind. And the order of the two clauses is the whole theology of the chapter: he looked up, and then his understanding returned. The eyes that had been fixed on great Babylon from a rooftop Daniel 4:30 and then on the grass in front of a beast's face are lifted, and sanity follows the gaze. Scripture keeps the two joined — the fear of the Lord is where understanding starts, and the proud are the ones who cannot see straight Proverbs 9:10 Psalms 123:1 Luke 18:13–14.
And I blessed the Most High, and I praised and honored him who lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom from generation to generation.
The doxology is the same one that opened the letter Daniel 4:3, now arriving in its proper place. Him who lives forever is said by a man who has just discovered how little of his own life he controlled, and from generation to generation is conceded by the king who cast his statue in solid gold to deny that any generation would follow his Daniel 3:1.
All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing; and he does according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth; and no one can stop his hand, or ask him, "What are you doing?" Daniel 4:35.
This is the strongest statement of God's sovereignty in the book, and it comes from a pagan who learned it in a field. Two spheres — the army of heaven and the inhabitants of the earth — and one will running through both; no hand able to stop it, and no standing to file a complaint. The prophets say the same and use the same figures: the nations as a drop, as dust on the scales, the clay with no case against the potter Isaiah 40:15 Isaiah 40:17 Isaiah 45:9 Romans 9:20. A man who once asked who is that god who will deliver you out of my hands? Daniel 3:15 now reports that no one can stop the hand of God.
At the same time my understanding returned to me; and for the glory of my kingdom, my majesty and brightness returned to me... and excellent greatness was added to me Daniel 4:36.
The stump was banded for this Daniel 4:26. Counselors seek him out, the throne is restored, and excellent greatness was added — more than he had before. Humbling was never the objective; it was the route. God took nothing from this king that he did not intend to give back with interest, once it could be held in an open hand rather than a closed one 1 Peter 5:6 James 4:10.
Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven; for all his works are truth, and his ways justice; and those who walk in pride he is able to abase Daniel 4:37.
The decree ends with a verdict on the God who broke him, delivered by the man he broke: all his works are truth, and his ways justice. Not merely powerful — right. And the final clause is his own epitaph, offered voluntarily to every people, nation, and language in the empire: those who walk in pride he is able to abase. He had asked, in his rage at the furnace, what god could deliver out of his hands. He closes his own state paper answering the question in the only form he was capable of learning it — the King of heaven is able, and the proof is the signature at the bottom.
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