Daniel 4:25

¹⁷“‘The sentence is by the decree of the watchers and the demand by the word of the holy ones, to the intent that the living may know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomever he will, and sets up over it the lowest of men.’

⁵‘I have made the earth, the men, and the animals that are on the surface of the earth by my great power and by my outstretched arm. I give it to whom it seems right to me.

¹⁸that they may know that you alone, whose name is the LORD,are ^[+] the Most High over all the earth.

²¹He changes the times and the seasons. He removes kings and sets up kings. He gives wisdom to the wise, and knowledge to those who have understanding.

²⁰Thus they exchanged their glory for an image of a bull that eats grass.

³They are gaunt from lack and famine. They gnaw the dry ground, in the gloom of waste and desolation. ⁴They pluck salt herbs by the bushes. The roots of the broom tree are their food. ⁵They are driven out from among men. They cry after them as after a thief, ⁶so that they live in frightful valleys, and in holes of the earth and of the rocks. ⁷They bray among the bushes. They are gathered together under the nettles. ⁸They are children of fools, yes, children of wicked men. They were flogged out of the land.

⁷But God is the judge. He puts down one, and lifts up another.

³He lived in the tombs. Nobody could bind him any more, not even with chains, ⁴because he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been torn apart by him, and the fetters broken in pieces. Nobody had the strength to tame him.

²¹He was driven from the sons of men, and his heart was made like the animals’, and his dwelling was with the wild donkeys. He was fed with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of the sky, until he knew that the Most High God rules in the kingdom of men, and that he sets up over it whomever he will.

²²“You, his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, though you knew all this, ²³but have lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of his house before you, and you and your lords, your wives, and your concubines, have drunk wine from them. You have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which don’t see, or hear, or know; and you have not glorified the God in whose hand your breath is, and whose are all your ways. ²⁴Then the part of the hand was sent from before him, and this writing was inscribed.

²⁵“This is the writing that was inscribed: ‘MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.’

²⁶“This is the interpretation of the thing: MENE: God has counted your kingdom, and brought it to an end.

²⁷TEKEL: you are weighed in the balances, and are found wanting.

²⁸PERES: your kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.”

²⁹Then Belshazzar commanded, and they clothed Daniel with purple, and put a chain of gold about his neck, and made proclamation concerning him, that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom.

³⁰In that night Belshazzar the Chaldean King was slain. ³¹Darius the Mede received the kingdom, being about sixty-two years old.

³²You shall be driven from men, and your dwelling shall be with the animals of the field. You shall be made to eat grass like oxen. Seven times shall pass over you, until you know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomever he will.’”

³³This was fulfilled the same hour on Nebuchadnezzar. He was driven from men and ate grass like oxen; and his body was wet with the dew of the sky until his hair had grown like eagles’ feathers, and his nails like birds’ claws.

³⁴At 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. ³⁵All 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?”