Daniel 4:8 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Daniel 4:8
But at the last Daniel came in before me, whose name was Belteshazzar, according to the name of my God, and in whom is the spirit of the holy gods: and before him I told the dream, saying,
before · noun, common both genders plural construct + pronominal suffix
name
שְׁמֵ֤הּshe.Meh
H8036
an appellation · noun, common both genders singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
Belteshazzar
בֵּלְטְשַׁאצַּר֙be.le.te.sha.Tzar
H1096
Belteshatstsar · proper noun, a man's name
name
כְּשֻׁ֣םke.Shum
H8036
an appellation · preposition + noun, common both genders singular construct
god
אֱלָהִ֔י'e.la.Hi
H426
God · noun, common both genders singular construct + pronominal suffix
spirit
רֽוּחַRu.ach-
H7308
wind · noun, common both genders singular construct
holy
קַדִּישִׁ֖יןka.di.Shin
H6922
sacred (ceremonially or morally) · adjective, masculine plural absolute
gods
אֱלָהִ֥ין'e.la.Hin
H426
God · noun, common masculine plural absolute
before
קָֽדָמ֥וֹהִיka.da.Mo.hi
H6925
before · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
told
אַמְרֵֽת'am.Ret
H560
to say (used with great latitude) · verb, qal perfect, 1st person common singular
dream
וְחֶלְמָ֖אve.chel.Ma'
H2493
a dream · conjunction + noun, common both genders singular determined + particle of affirmation
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Daniel 1:7 Unto whom the prince of the eunuchs gave names: for he gave unto Daniel the name of Belteshazzar; and to Hananiah, of Shadrach; and to Misha…
Daniel 4:18 This dream I king Nebuchadnezzar have seen. Now thou, O Belteshazzar, declare the interpretation thereof, forasmuch as all the wise men of m…
Daniel 5:14 I have even heard of thee, that the spirit of the gods is in thee, and that light and understanding and excellent wisdom is found in thee.
Daniel 2:11 And it is a rare thing that the king requireth, and there is none other that can shew it before the king, except the gods, whose dwelling is…
Daniel 4:9 O Belteshazzar, master of the magicians, because I know that the spirit of the holy gods is in thee, and no secret troubleth thee, tell me t…
Daniel 5:11-12 There is a man in thy kingdom, in whom is the spirit of the holy gods; and in the days of thy father light and understanding and wisdom, lik…
Numbers 11:17-30 And I will come down and talk with thee there: and I will take of the spirit which is upon thee, and will put it upon them; and they shall b…
Isaiah 46:1 Bel boweth down, Nebo stoopeth, their idols were upon the beasts, and upon the cattle: your carriages were heavy loaden; they are a burden t…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Daniel 4:4-18
Nebuchadnezzar, before he relates the judgments of God that had been wrought upon him for his pride, gives an account of the fair warning he had of them before they came, a due regard to which might have prevented them. But he was told of them, and of the issue of them, before they came to pass, that, when they did come to pass, by comparing them with the prediction of them, he might see, and say, that they were the Lord's doing, and might be brought to believe that there is a divine revelation in the world, as well as a divine Providence, and that the works of God agree with his word.
Now, in the account he here gives of his dream, by which he had notice of what was coming, we may observe,…
Belteshazzar--called so from the god Bel or Belus (see on Dan 1:7).
Adam Clarke on Daniel 4:5
I saw a dream - See this dream circumstantially explained in the following verses.
John Gill on Daniel 4:8
But at the last Daniel came in before me,.... Whether sent for or no is not clear; the reason why he came not with the rest might be because he did not associate with them; nor did they care he should be among them, and present at this time; and it may be the king had forgot the knowledge he had of dreams; or, however, did not choose to send for him until he had tried all his wise men; and so it was ordered by the providence of God, and which is the chief reason of all, that he should come last, that the skill of the magicians might appear first to be baffled, and that Daniel, or rather Daniel's God, might be more known, and might be glorified:
whose name was Belteshazzar, according to the…
The spirit filled the soul of Daniel with wisdom.… Even Nebuchadnezzar recognized that the Holy Spirit was in Daniel.… One thing he said was true and one was false. That he had the spirit was true, but he was not the chief of the magicians. He was no magician, but he was wise by the Holy Spirit.… You see the power of the Holy Spirit; they who had seen the vision do not understand, while they who had not seen it understand and interpret it.
We are not capable of glorifying God on our own; only in the Spirit is this made possible. In him we are able to thank God for the blessings we have received. To the extent that we are purified from evil, each receives a smaller or larger portion of the Spirit's help that each may offer the sacrifice of praise to God. If we offer glory to God, in the Spirit, we mean that the Spirit enables us to fulfill the requirements of true religion.… The words of Paul are appropriate: "I think I have the Spirit of God." … Likewise it is said concerning Daniel, "the Holy Spirit of God is in you."
Verse 8. "'Then at last my associate, Daniel, whose name according to the name of my god is Belteshazzar, entered before my presence.'" With the exception of the Septuagint translators (who for some reason or other have omitted this whole passage), the other three translators have translated the word as "associate" (collega). Consequently by the judgment of the teachers of the Church, the Septuagint edition has been rejected in the case of this book, and it is the translation of Theodotion which is commonly read, since it agrees with the Hebrew as well as with the other translators. Wherefore also Origen asserts in the ninth book of the Stromata that he is discussing the text from this point on in the prophecy of Daniel, not as it appears in the Septuagint, which greatly differs from the Hebrew original, but rather as it appears in Theodotion's edition. "'...(Daniel) who has within him the spirit of the holy gods; and I related the dream unto him...'" Corresponding to the rendering here given, "of the holy god," we read in Chaldee (in which Daniel was composed) the words elain cadisin ('-l-h-y-n q-d-y-sh-y-n), which means "holy gods" and not "holy God," as Theodotion rendered it. Nor is it surprising if Nebuchadnezzar made such a mistake, and supposed that any force he perceived to be higher than himself were gods, rather than God. Lastly he states also in his following words: "'Belteshazzar, thou chief of the soothsayers, whom I know to possess within thee the spirit of the holy gods.' " Belteshazzar was chief of the soothsayers or enchanters, as others have rendered it. It is not surprising if he had been appointed chief over all the soothsayers since he had at the king's order been taught the wisdom of the Chaldeans, and had besides been found ten times wiser than all the rest. Let us ask of those who do not concede any historical basis for this vision, what Nebuchadnezzar it was who saw the dream, and who the Daniel was who declared his dream and foretold things to come. And how did it come to pass that this same Daniel (whose fortitude was, at least according to them, to be understood as divine in origin) was appointed chief of the soothsayers by Nebuchadnezzar, and called his companion?
Dictionary and topics
Daniel — God is my judge, or judge of God. (1.) David’s second son, “born unto him in Hebron, of Abigail the Carmelitess” (1 Chr. 3:1). He is called also Chileab (2 Sam. 3:3). (2.) One of the four great…
Media — Heb. Madai, which is rendered in the Authorized Version (1) “Madai,” Gen. 10:2; (2) “Medes,” 2 Kings 17:6; 18:11; (3) “Media,” Esther 1:3; 10:2; Isa. 21:2; Dan. 8:20; (4) “Mede,” only in Dan. 11:1.…
Converts · Nebuchadnezzar — Nebuchadnezzar
Daniel · .Prophecies of — .Prophecies of
Dreams · Mentioned in scripture of: Nebuchadnezzar — Mentioned in scripture of: Nebuchadnezzar
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Daniel 4:8-9
8. But at the last Daniel came in before me, whose name was Belteshazzar, according to the name of my god, and in whom is the spirit of the holy gods, and before him I told the dream, saying,
8. Quousque tandem coram me introductus est Daniel cujus nomen Beltsazar secundum nomen dei mei, et in quo spiritus deorum sanctorum: et somnium coram ipso narravi.
9. O Belteshazzar, master of the magicians, because I know that the spirit of the holy gods is in thee, and no secret troubleth thee, tell me the visions of my dream that I have seen, and the interpretation thereof.
9. Beltsazar princeps, vel, magister, magorum, quia ego novi quod spiritus deorum sanctorum in te sit, et null…
Therefore Nebuchadnezzar commanded the wise men of Babylon (Dan 2:2) to be called to him, that they might interpret to him the dream. But they could not do so, although on this occasion he only asked them to give the interpretation, and not, as in Dan 2:2, at the same time the dream itself. Instead of the Kethiv עללין, the Keri here and at Dan 5:8 gives the contracted form עלּין, which became possible only by the shortening of , as in חשׁחן Dan 3:16. The form אחרין is differently explained; apparently it must be the plur. masc. instead of אחרן, and אחרין עד, to the last, a circumlocution of the adverb at last. That אחרין means posterus, and אחרן alius, Hitzig has not yet furnished the proof.…
At last: Nebuchadnezzar appealed first to his Babylonian advisers; in spite of his high position, Daniel, an exiled Jew, was a last resort. • spirit of the holy gods is in him: See 2:47; cp. 5:11. Despite his previous experience of the Most High God, Nebuchadnezzar still believed in many gods. In Egypt, Pharaoh had asserted the same thing of Joseph (Gen 41:37-38). It was the Most High God who assisted Daniel (Dan 4:24). Nevertheless, for the great king to say that Daniel had the spirit of the holy gods in him showed great respect and helps to explain Daniel’s immunity from harassment (see ch 3).
Rashi on Daniel 4:8
The tree grew and became strong The tree grew and became stronger and stronger.
reached the sky [as translated,] reached the sky.
