Daniel 4:34 - Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Bible Comments

And at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the most High, and I praised and honoured him that liveth for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation:

I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven - whence the "voice" had issued (Daniel 4:31) at the beginning of his visitation. "There fell a voice from heaven." 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 toward 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 (Jonah 2:1-2; Jonah 2:4) out of the fish's belly, they are lifted up to heaven in prayer. He turns to Him that smiteth Him (Isaiah 9:13), with the faint glimmer of reason left to him, and owns God's justice in punishing him.

I praised and honoured him. Praise is a sure sign of a soul spiritually healed (Psalms 116:12; Psalms 116:14; Mark 5:15; Mark 5:18-19).

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

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

Daniel 4:34

34 And at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the most High, and I praised and honoured him that liveth for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation: