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For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.

The Dream Is Fulfilled 28 All this happened to King Nebuchadnezzar.  29 Twelve months later, as the king was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon,  30 he said, “Is not this the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence, by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty?” 31 Even as the words were on his lips, a voice came from heaven, “This is what is decreed for you, King Nebuchadnezzar: Your royal authority has been taken from you.  32 You will be driven away from people and will live with the wild animals; you will eat grass like the ox. Seven times will pass by for you until you acknowledge that the Most High is sovereign over all kingdoms on earth and gives them to anyone he wishes.” 33 Immediately what had been said about Nebuchadnezzar was fulfilled. He was driven away from people and ate grass like the ox. His body was drenched with the dew of heaven until his hair grew like the feathers of an eagle and his nails like the claws of a bird. 34 At the end of that time, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven, and my sanity was restored. Then I praised the Most High; I honored and glorified him who lives forever. His dominion is an eternal dominion;      his kingdom endures from generation to generation. 35 All the peoples of the earth      are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases      with the powers of heaven      and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand      or say to him: “What have you done?” 36 At the same time that my sanity was restored, my honor and splendor were returned to me for the glory of my kingdom. My advisers and nobles sought me out, and I was restored to my throne and became even greater than before.  37 Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, because everything he does is right and all his ways are just. And those who walk in pride he is able to humble.

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A king, David, took a walk on the roof of his palace. He surveyed the scene with interest. The adultery that followed resulted not only in multiple fatalities on the battlefield but also in the destabilization of the royal household.1 Four hundred years later, another king, Nebuchadnezzar, took a walk on the roof of his palace. The scene that greeted him filled him with the deepest joy and pride, especially because most of the architecture he surveyed was the work of his own creativity and ingenuity (Nebuchadnezzar was more a builder than a warrior). The pride that filled him led directly to his downfall, sent down from heaven (vv. 31, 32), and for seven years, he was driven from human society and his royal throne. He ate grass—he had a condition called boanthropy, in which he imagined himself to be a cow.2 At the end of that time, he lifted up his eyes toward heaven (surely an act of confession). What Nebuchadnezzar saw made him realize that his creativity, displayed in the palaces, boulevards, and hanging gardens of Babylon, did not and could not compare with, or match that of, the One whose ‘glory’ the heavens and the skies declare.3 As human beings, we are all prone to stumble and fall. When we hit rock bottom, the only way out is to look up to the One who restored David after his grievous infidelity and Nebuchadnezzar after his insanity, brought on by his idolatrous narcissism. Jesus alone has power to restore so that we too might ‘praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven because everything he does is right and all his ways are just’ (v. 37).

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