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Dan.4:1. I am Nebuchadnezzar abounding in my house, and flourishing on my throne, and growing fat among my people. It was not without intention that he put his name, but so that the name would bear witness to the words. Because he was very famous as having taken possession of all those living in Asia, Egypt and Ethiopia; then he put his name in front, sufficient to testify to what was said. He said: I lived in extreme prosperity, abounding in thousands of blessings, and being in this state, he continues to speak. Dan.4:2. See the dream, and frighten me, and I was crushed on my bed, and the vision of my head crushed me. For, enjoying such prosperity, I saw a sorrowful dream, I was very frightened by the vision of this dream, and more confused by the fact that I could not understand what was meant by the dream. Therefore, he called together those who could interpret it. Dan.4:4. And the charmers came in, the Volsvi, the Gazarins, the Chaldeans, and the dream died before them: and they did not tell his tales, Dan.4:5. until Daniel came before me, whose name was Belshazzar, after the name of my God, who has the Holy Spirit of God in himself, He didn’t just write this, but used a comparison in order to thereby make the wisdom of the Prophet clear to everyone. For this purpose, he numbers the wise men of Babylon by nations, wanting to show that they know nothing at all, but the Prophet is enlightened by the Spirit of God. He does not call it by the same name that he himself gave, but also adds a Jewish name. For he says: “Daniel, whose name is Belshazzar, after the name of my God.” I was so amazed at him from the very beginning, says the king, that I gave him the name of the god whom I had previously worshiped. And showing the reason, he says: “have the Holy Spirit of God in you.” And he learned this from the teachings of the Prophet himself. For how else would the king know the name of the All-Holy Spirit, being tied to false idols? He began to speak to him like this: Dan.4:6. Belshazzar, the prince of charmers, whom I understood, as the Holy Spirit imashes, and every mystery fails before you, hear the vision of my dream, which I saw, and the legend, tell it to me. Dan.4:7. And visions of my head on my bed. Prosperity often drives many people to the point where they forget their benefactors, while need renews in us the remembrance of those who have done good. And a healthy body does not keep the name of the art of a doctor; but, having fallen into illness, he remembers that he had already suffered from the same thing before, and regained his health with the help of such and such a doctor. So Nebuchadnezzar, when he committed these Saints to burning, did not remember the good deeds of Daniel; when he saw the dream again, and his soul was indignant, he remembered wisdom and how the previous dream was recalled and interpreted by Daniel. Therefore, he says that he has the Spirit of God, is able to interpret any mystery, and asks him to make this dream, incomprehensible to him, understandable. Then he tells it - a dream, and says: “I saw a tree in the midst of the earth.” Dan.4:8. And its height reached to the heavens, and its magnitude to the ends of the earth. Blessed Daniel said that the tree meant the king himself; and that “the height reached to heaven” - this, according to the Prophet, did not mean the nature of the tree, but thoughts and dreams. That is why Isaiah said: “God will bring upon a great mind the king of Assyria and the height of glory in his eyes” (Is. 10:12). He called him a great mind, as one who imagined and dreamed highly of himself, which the Prophet soon depicted: “You said: I will set my throne above the stars, I will be like the Most High” (Is. 14:13, 14). Therefore, Nebuchadnezzar sees the height of the tree reaching to the sky. And since he took possession, one might say, of the whole universe; then he sees the size of the tree (that is, the volume in breadth stretches to the very ends of the earth). Dan.4:9. Its foliage is beautiful, and its fruit is plentiful, “Foliage” is the name given to visible splendor, namely the clothes, the throne, the royal palaces, shield-bearers, spearmen and bodyguards, and “fruit” is the tribute brought from everywhere. Therefore, it is said about the fruit that it is “many” and not beautiful; because he wasn't fair. For the farmers, under his care, using the world, gathered the fruits of the earth, and the warriors, receiving salaries from him, spent their lives with weapons in their hands. and under it the wild beasts lived, and in its branches the birds of the air lived, and from it all flesh was fed; because under his power were both barbarians leading a brutal life, and people who were more reasonable and meek, quick and soaring in mind. Daniel 4:10. Therefore it is said: I saw in a dream at night on my bed, and behold, the Vigorous and Holy One came down from heaven. Vigorous (Ἔ ιρ) is called vigilant; for this is the meaning of Hellenic. An Angel is called watchful, and this signifies his incorporeality; because he who is covered with flesh is enslaved to sleep, and he who is not overcome by sleep is free from the body. Therefore it is said: I saw an Angel, having an incorporeal nature, who descended from heaven. Dan.4:11. And shout loudly, and thus say: Sow the tree, and beat its branches, and shake off its leaves, and scatter its fruit. And he sees an Angel descending from heaven, so that he could find out that the Lord of all things himself had uttered a decree about him. And laying down his royal power, he learns who gave him the kingdom. For he sees the tree cut and the branches separated from it, that is, princes, military leaders and commanders, and to whom any other government power was entrusted by the king. Seeing the leaves shaken, that is, the glory with which he was surrounded in the likeness of leaves, he sees it passing and fading; and the fruit was scattered, because when the king was subjected to this disaster, the tribute collectors were not afraid to turn it to their advantage. Let the beasts tremble under him, and the birds from his branches; because those forced against their will to be in slavery, having found an excuse in the change of the king, will retreat from obedience. Dan.4:12. Just leave the branch of rooting in the earth, and in the bonds of iron and brass, and in the outer grass, and in the dew of heaven, For, having suffered from the disease of insanity, insanity and rage, going mad, raging and rushing with rage at everyone, Nebuchadnezzar was of necessity put in chains. However, this was not enough to keep him at home, but he spent his time wandering in the deserts, living in poverty in the open air, and like cattle, eating grass. For this is signified by what is said: and with the beasts a part of it in the grass of the earth: Daniel 4:13. his heart will change from man, and the heart of a beast will be given to him, and seven times will change over him. But this allows us to see God’s long-suffering. For God limits punishment to a short time, expecting that repentance will be generated by this admonition. Then it is shown that what is said is irresistible. Daniel 4:14. With the saying of Bodrago the word, and the verb of the saints, petition, that is, this word is not false; because he who spoke is a holy angel, vigilant, incorporeal. This has been spoken, and it will happen, and it will not be in vain. but let the living know that the Most High owns the kingdom of man, and if he desires it, he will give it, and raise up what was destroyed by men over it; that is, this is what the Angel said: this will happen with the tree, so that everyone will know that there is one God, Lord and King, who appoints kings on earth and hands over the kingdom to whomever he pleases. For, showing His power, sometimes he makes the humiliated, imputed for nothing, a king, and arranges for those of high rank to obey him. So Nebuchadnezzar, recounting the dream, says to Daniel: Daniel 4:15. This is the dream that King Nebuchadnezzar saw: you told Belshazzar his tale, that is, say truly and accurately, because all the wisdom of my kingdom cannot tell his tales to me, but you can, and showing the reason, he adds: for the Spirit of God is holy in you. They are driven by human thoughts, but you come to know the unseen from God. Daniel 4:16. Then Daniel, whose name was Belshazzar, was horrified for one hour, and his thoughts troubled him. For human weakness had to be revealed, and then inspiring grace had to appear. Therefore The king answered and said: Belshazzar, do not let this dream and its legend bother you. The king saw that Daniel was in confusion, and out of necessity, he encouraged him, wanting to find out about what he did not know. Therefore, he says: don’t be in a hurry, but, having found out in freedom what the dream means, present it to me clearly. Because Belshazzar answered and said: My lord, to the king, let this dream be to those who hate you, and let its legend be your enemy. Very wisely and prudently, starting his speech, he expresses the desire that the upcoming sorrows would not befall the king, and together he expresses the truth. Daniel 4:17. The tree, magnified and strengthened, its height reaching to heaven and its size to the whole earth, Daniel 4:18. and its foliage is full of flowers, and its fruit is plentiful, and the food of all is in it: under it live the wild beasts, and in the branches the birds of the air nest, Daniel's wisdom is amazing! He did not simply say: “a great tree,” but: a tree “exalted and strengthened,” that is, you were not great from the beginning, but gradually became great, and did not have strength from birth, but gradually received it. Therefore he also adds: for thou art magnified and strengthened: and thy majesty is magnified, and reacheth unto heaven, and thy power unto the ends of the earth. And here, very decently and by the way, he attributed one to heaven and the other to earth; because he said about power, that is, about the vastness of his possessions, that it reached to the end of the earth; It was not power that reached heaven, but majesty, that is, the representation of thought. Daniel 4:20. And when he saw Bodrago and the saint descending from heaven, and he said: cut the tree, and scatter it, so that its roots may be left in the earth, and in the bond of iron and brass, and in the outer grass, and in the dew of heaven, and part of it with the marvelous beasts, until seven times they will change over it: Daniel 4:21. And this is the story to his king. And in order to make the word worthy of belief, of necessity he added: And there is a saying from the Most High that has come upon my lord the king. From here one can accurately determine the benefit of the apostolic teaching. For it is said: “Let every soul be subject to the powers that be” (Rom. 13:1). And blessed Daniel calls the evil king his master, and as, obeying the law of authority, he uses decent names, he shows that the fulfillment of the dream is sorrowful. For he says: Dan.4:22. You will be married to men and your life will be with marvelous beasts, and you will be fed with grass like oxen, and your body will be watered with the dew of heaven, and seven times will change over you. About the seven times, some claimed that it was seven years, while others said it was three years and a half; because Divine Scripture divides the year not into four parts, but into two main ones, winter and summer; why seven such parts will amount to three years and a half. So much time, says the Prophet, will you spend in poverty. Dondezh, having hung himself, as if the Most High owns the kingdom of man, and will delight him and give it to him. Because you dream of yourself that you are a god, and even higher than God; then God will take away your human reason and make you become like beasts, so that by experience he can find out for you what man is, and what God is, what human well-being is, and what God’s kingdom is, which cannot be gained, unless God pleases it. Dan.4:23. And if you leave the root of the tree, your kingdom will be yours, even as you hang the kingdom of heaven. For, having lost the kingdom and having endured all of the above, you will come to know the Giver of the kingdom, then, having come to know it, you will again receive the former power, and from this taking away and returning you will know exactly who the ruler of all is, who wisely orders and governs everything. So having said what will happen, he makes an exhortation, gives excellent advice, offers a cure suitable for an ulcer. For he says: Dan.4:24. For this reason, king, may my advice be pleasing to you, and atone for your sins with alms, and for your unrighteousness with the generosity of the poor. And this shows the insatiable cruelty with which he treated his subjects. Do you want, he says, to take advantage of your humanity? Show it to those who share the same nature with you. For by this you will convince the Judge to soften the threat and leave it unfulfilled. Negli God will be patient with your sin. This thought was given to him by the Prophet, but the king, being stubborn and adamant, accepted retribution for lawlessness, and saw the sorrows he heard about with his own eyes. Then the Prophet also means the time of God's patience. For, after twelve months, the predicted threat came to actual fulfillment, and Nebuchadnezzar, having so much time for repentance, poorly used the period assigned to him for repentance. Blessed Paul could rightly say to him: “Or are you heedless of the riches of His goodness and meekness and long-suffering, unknowingly, because the goodness of God leads you to repentance? Because of your cruelty and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath and revelation and the righteous judgment of God. He will reward everyone according to his deeds: for those who seek good deeds through patience, glory and honor and incorruptibility, eternal life: and those who zealously resist the truth, but obey unrighteousness, rage and anger. Tribulation and distress for every soul of a person who does evil” (Rom. 2:4-9). This came true with Nebuchadnezzar, who did not take advantage of God’s patience as he should. And he himself is a witness to this when he says this: Daniel 4:26. For twelve months at a time, he walked in the house of his kingdom in Babylon. With all glory he walked along the walls of the city and its towers. Dan.4:27. And the king answered and said: Is not this great Babylon, which I built into the house of the kingdom, in the power of my fortress, in honor of my glory? Look at what a arrogant opinion of yourself! look at the exorbitant arrogance! I, he says, made this city royal, building royal palaces in it; “In honor of my glory I” did this, having great power and possessing everything. He uttered such words while vainglorious and boasting. The Lord God immediately sent execution on him. For he said: Daniel 4:28. I put another word in the king’s mouth, and a voice came from heaven. Because he dreamed of ascending to heaven, he receives a sentence from heaven. And since the long palaces of the king were not enough for him, in madness he lusted after the heavenly ones; then he is deprived of his long ones; wanting to delight heaven, he is expelled on earth. Therefore a voice came from heaven. To you, to you it is said, King Nebuchadnezzar. This aggravation of the pronoun was not just used, but in the most obvious denunciation of the one to whom this is spoken. The heavenly voice still calls him a king, showing both his present glory and his future dishonor. Thy kingdom pass from Thee, Dan.4:29. and they will marry you from man, and your life with wondrous beasts, and they will feed you with grass like oxen, and seven times will be changed upon you, until you are weighed, for the Most High rules the kingdom of man, and if he pleases, he will give it.” Then, showing the speed of the execution that befell, the king says that the word was immediately followed by deed. Daniel 4:30. In that hour the word died on Nebuchadnezzar, and was driven away from man, He was expelled, firstly, because of the illness itself, because he was given over to madness and frenzy, and would have committed thousands of evils if he had enjoyed freedom, and then because of the enmity that everyone had towards him, but they tried to hide while he was healthy, and they discovered, disgusted by his cruelty, how soon he fell into disaster. For it is common for madmen not only to speak and act unreasonably and disorderly, but also to eat everything they can get their hands on. And now you can see what these demon-possessed people do and suffer. Not only did he eat grass like an ox, but also “his body was watered with the dew of heaven” 4 . For, suffering in the open air, and with the nakedness of the body, struggling with hunger and heat, it was necessary to take on a different color. His hair is as old as a lion's, and his nails are like birds. Without cutting his hair, as usual, and without cutting off excess nails, during such a time, it was necessary for him to have such hair and nails. And all this served as a sign that he was left in negligence, without any care. As he was deprived of God's providence for him, he did not enjoy any care for him from his own people, although he had a wife, children, and relatives. On the contrary, like a wild beast, he wandered in uninhabited places, filling his belly with the food of the dumb. Because he is a man and in great honor, he is foolish, having joined himself to senseless cattle and become like them (Isa. 48:21), and treats his subjects like a beast; then, rightfully and very justly, he was condemned to live bestial and bestial life. But the philanthropic Lord, putting an end to the punishment, as good, and having taught by experience that He is the Lord of all, again elevated him to the throne, and entrusted him with the former kingdom. Daniel 4:31. And at the end of those days, he says, I Nebuchadnezzar raised his eyes to heaven. He didn’t just add: “I”, but teaching all people that he, who gave himself up to such arrogance, who said: “Who is God, whom you will pluck out of my hand?”, who dreamed of ascending to heaven and setting his throne above the stars, was by experience, instructed in what he should know, and from punishment learned to be chaste, having learned his slavery. Therefore, he lifted his eyes to heaven; and barely, he says, he did it, And my mind return to me, that is, I freed myself from nonsense, strengthened my reason, and immediately assumed a sound mind. And we blessed the Most High, and praised Him who lives forever, for His power, His power is eternal, and His kingdom endures forever. Having learned through experience what man is and what God is, he calls God the Most High and the Living, calls Him the Eternal King, and recognizes his own insignificance. Therefore he says: Daniel 4:32. And all those living on earth are imputed to nothing. Until now, I considered myself very great and lofty, but now I clearly learned that all human nature is nothing in comparison with God. Looking for a name to mean poverty, and not finding a worthy one, I used this word: nothing, as sufficiently expressing the creepiness and frailty of nature. And he called God the Most High, the Lord, the living, the eternal King, but about all people he said that they are nothing. So blessed Isaiah, comparing the nature of God with idols, brought out the human race into the environment, and says: “If all the nations are like a drop of cinders, and like the weight of the weight is imputed, and like spitting they are imputed; Lebanon is not content with the burning, and all four-legged creatures are displeased with the burnt offering, and all the nations are like nothing, and are imputed to nothing. Who will you liken the Lord to? and to whose likeness you will liken Him” (Is. 40:15-18). Nebuchadnezzar gained so much benefit from disasters that he prophetically reasons and speaks about God, and, as if by some agreement on behalf of the creature, he composes the entire song, saying: “all who live on earth are imputed to nothing.” And according to His will he creates in the power of heaven, and in the village of the earth. And this is the teaching of another Prophet. For blessed David says: “The Lord has created all that He wills in heaven and on earth.” (Ps.134:6). Nebuchadnezzar also preaches, for he says what he wants, and establishes it, “both in the power of heaven and in the settlement of the earth,” and disposes of not only the earth, but also the heavens themselves. Then, showing the invincibility of God’s power, he continues: And there is no one who resists His hand, and says to Him: What have you done? It is necessary to love everything that happens by His order, whether it be pleasant or sorrowful. For it is wise to resist and complain about what He has established. Having known this, and confessed, and glorified the Most High, says the king, I came to my senses and with piety accepted the former kingdom. Daniel 4:33. At that time my mind returned to me, and in honor of my kingdom I came, and my sight returned to me. Being, as likely, dirty and unclean when he cut his hair, cut off excess nails, washed off the dirt from himself, and was honored with God's mercy, he was recognized as the same person who previously ruled the great kingdom. says, “and my nobles seek me.” And they, putting aside hatred, began to show kindness and love towards me. And I have established myself in my kingdom, and majesty has been bestowed upon me more abundantly. And these words are also filled with piety. He did not say: I have acquired greater greatness, but he says: “Be attached to me,” indicating the Giver, and proclaiming the Author of good things. , says the king, “I praise and extol Nebuchadnezzar, and I glorify the heavenly King: for all His deeds are true, and the path of His destiny, and everything that walks in pride can be humbled.” Having experienced sorrow, then having gotten rid of it, I praise and sing songs of the One who, for my benefit and very wisely, sent down to me both; and I know that this King of heaven and the Lord of all is guided by the truth, rules everything truthfully and can humble those who indulge in pride. Therefore, having learned that pride and arrogance harm those who are led by them, and that those who delight in this reap bad fruits, we will acquire the mother of blessings - humility. This acquisition also pleases the Lord; because its profit is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” says the Lord: “for to them is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:3). And He presents Himself in the image of those who want to take advantage, saying: “Learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart.” (Matthew 11:29). And showing what fruit came from this, he immediately added: “and you will find rest for your souls.” If the Creator and Ruler of all calls Himself humble, and shows this in deeds; then does a man who is dust, dirt, lumps of earth, ashes, vanity, color, grass need any other advice? For all these names are given to it by divine Scripture. Therefore, let us be ashamed of the measure of the Master, who “is rich because of our poverty, so that through His poverty we may become rich” (2 Cor. 8:5), we recognize the mortality of nature, and seeing the transience of present prosperity, we will not think anything arrogant about the present, but even more so we will laugh at its vicissitudes and fragility, and we will desire to obtain these benefits, which by nature are holy and constant. May we all enjoy them, by the grace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ! With Him glory to the Father with the Holy Spirit, now and always, and unto ages of ages! Amen. The Greek word: ἐβάφη ", can also be translated: "colored."