Daniel 4:3
in Daniel 4How great are His signs, how mighty His wonders! His kingdom is an eternal kingdom; His dominion endures from generation to generation.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
How great are his signs! and how mighty are his wonders! his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion is from generation to generation.
KJV
How great are his signs! and how mighty are his wonders! his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion is from generation to generation.
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This verse in Daniel 4
Commentary
10 notes on this verseVerses 1-3. "Nebuchadnezzar the king unto all the peoples, nations and languages who dwell upon the whole earth: peace be multiplied unto you. The Most High God hath performed signs and wonders towards me. Therefore I have thought it well to declare His signs, for they are great, and His marvels, for they are mighty, and His kingdom, because it is (the Vulgate omits "because it is") an eternal kingdom, and His dominion is from generation to generation."
This site's exposition
May your prosperity be multiplied
on Daniel 4:1-3
The chapter opens as Nebuchadnezzar's decree turned to declare what “the Most High God has performed”. The older commentators note this is the one chapter of Scripture written in a gentile emperor's first person. Verse 3 sets the doxology first, so the reader knows where the king's humbling ends.
This site's exposition
His kingdom is an eternal kingdom
Matthew Henry sets this confession against chapter 2, where the king saw his own kingdom hastening to its end. God's kingdom has no end. John Wesley notes that the king was now old and had reigned above forty years.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers2 voices
Nothing is excluded from the dominion of God, for Scripture says of him, "All things serve you." God, then, rules over all things, and in his forbearance he endures even murderers and robbers and fornicators, having determined a fixed time for requiting each, that they who, granted a long reprieve, remain impenitent may suffer the greater condemnation. There are kings … who reign on earth, yet not without power from on high. This, of old, Nebuchadnezzar knew from experience when he said, "his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom."
And so at that time Nebuchadnezzar, after seeing the marvels which happened to the three boys and being pricked in heart, set forth through a decree to publically announce to all peoples, tribes, and tongues who were under him, that namely they who hear what occurred, should fear God and should glorify him, just as he himself also praised God and said, "His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and his authority is from generation to generation." [Daniel 4:3]
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
How great are his signs - Nothing less than a real change of heart could cause such a confession as this! Nebuchadnezzar was now old, had reigned above forty years, and seen as much of the world as most men ever did.
How great are his signs! and how mighty are his wonders!....
(2.) He thence infers God's dominion. This is that which he is at length brought to subscribe to: His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom; and not like his own kingdom, which he saw, and long since foresaw, in a dream, hastening towards a period.
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
How great are his signs! - There are no preternatural signs like his! His wonders - miraculous interferences, are mighty - they surpass all human power. He is the Sovereign of all kings, and his dominion is everlasting; and every generation is a proof of his all-governing influence. These are very fine sentiments, and show how deeply his mind was impressed with the majesty of God.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
How great are his signs! - How great and wonderful are the things by which he makes himself known in this manner! The allusion is doubtless to what had occurred to himself - the event by which a monarch of such state and power had been reduced to a condition so humble. With propriety he would regard this as a signal instance of the Divine interposition, and as adapted to give him an exalted view of the supremacy of the true God.
The words behind it
13 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| אָת֙וֹהִי֙ | ʾatohi | [are] signs his | H852 → | 3 times |
| כְּמָ֣ה | kemah | how much! | H4101 → | 13 times |
| רַבְרְבִ֔ין | ravrevin | great | H7260 → | 8 times |
| וְתִמְה֖וֹהִי | vetimhohi | and [are] wonders his | H8540 → | 3 times |
| כְּמָ֣ה | kemah | how much! | H4101 → | 13 times |
| תַקִּיפִ֑ין | takifin | strong | H8624 → | 5 times |
| מַלְכוּתֵהּ֙ | malkhuteh | kingdom his | H4437 → | 57 times |
| מַלְכ֣וּת | malkhut | [is] a kingdom of | H4437 → | 57 times |
| עָלַ֔ם | ʾalam | perpetuity | H5957 → | 20 times |
| וְשָׁלְטָנֵ֖הּ | veshaltaneh | and dominion his | H7985 → | 14 times |
| עִם־ | ʾim- | [is] with | H5974 → | 22 times |
| דָּ֥ר | dar | generation | H1859 → | 4 times |
| וְדָֽר׃ | vedar | and generation | H1859 → | 4 times |
אָת֙וֹהִי֙[are] signs his
ʾatohiH852 →3 times
כְּמָ֣הhow much!
kemahH4101 →13 times
רַבְרְבִ֔יןgreat
ravrevinH7260 →8 times
וְתִמְה֖וֹהִיand [are] wonders his
vetimhohiH8540 →3 times
כְּמָ֣הhow much!
kemahH4101 →13 times
תַקִּיפִ֑יןstrong
takifinH8624 →5 times
מַלְכוּתֵהּ֙kingdom his
malkhutehH4437 →57 times
מַלְכ֣וּת[is] a kingdom of
malkhutH4437 →57 times
עָלַ֔םperpetuity
ʾalamH5957 →20 times
וְשָׁלְטָנֵ֖הּand dominion his
veshaltanehH7985 →14 times
עִם־[is] with
ʾim-H5974 →22 times
דָּ֥רgeneration
darH1859 →4 times
וְדָֽר׃and generation
vedarH1859 →4 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Daniel 7:14And He was given dominion, glory, and kingship, that the people of every nation and language should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and His kingdom is…
it leads to
- Revelation 11:15
Then the seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and loud voices called out in heaven: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He will reign…
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Daniel 7:27
Then the sovereignty, dominion, and greatness of the kingdoms under all of heaven will be given to the people, the saints of the Most High. His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all…
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Daniel 2:44
In the days of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will shatter all these kingdoms…
- Revelation 11:15
Through
Isaiah 25:1O LORD, You are my God! I will exalt You; I will praise Your name. For You have worked wonders—plans formed long ago—in perfect faithfulness.
it leads to
- Exodus 15:2
The LORD is my strength and my song, and He has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise Him, my father’s God, and I will exalt Him.
- Psalms 118:28
You are my God, and I will give You thanks. You are my God, and I will exalt You.
- Numbers 23:19
God is not a man, that He should lie, or a son of man, that He should change His mind. Does He speak and not act? Does He promise and not fulfill?
- Exodus 15:2
Through
Revelation 11:15Then the seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and loud voices called out in heaven: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He will reign…
it leads to
- Daniel 7:14
And He was given dominion, glory, and kingship, that the people of every nation and language should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and His kingdom is…
- Revelation 12:10
And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of His Christ. For the accuser of our…
- Daniel 7:14
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies5
About Daniel
This page draws on 9 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Book of Daniel; Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lecture 8:5; Hippolytus of Rome, Commentary on Daniel 3.2.1; Jerome, St. Jerome, Commentary on Daniel, CHAPTER FOUR; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.