And now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant; and the beasts of the field have I given him also to serve him.
Now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar - not for his merits, but of my own sole good pleasure (Estius).
Beasts of the field - not merely the horses to carry his Chaldean soldiers and oxen to draw his provisions Beasts of the field - not merely the horses to carry his Chaldean soldiers, and oxen to draw his provisions (Grotius); not merely the deserts, mountains, and woods, the haunts of wild beasts, implying his unlimited extent of empire (Estius); but the beasts themselves, by a mysterious instinct of nature. A reproof to men that they did not recognize God's will, which the very beasts acknowledged (cf. Isaiah 1:3). As the beasts are to submit to Christ, the Restorer of the dominion over nature, lost by the first Adam (cf. Genesis 1:28; Genesis 2:19-20; Psalms 8:6-8), so they were appointed to submit to Nebuchadnezzar, the representative of the world-power delegated to him by God, which, however, when he abused, ruling for himself instead of for and under God, he became the prefigurer of Antichrist; this universal power was suffered to be held by him to show the unfitness of any to wield it, "until He come whose right it is" (Ezekiel 21:27).