Daniel 4.11-The Tree Became Enormous So That It Was Strong With Its Height Reaching To The Heavens So That It Was Visible Throughout The Earth
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday September 6, 2012
Daniel: Daniel 4:11-The Tree Became Enormous So That It Was Strong With Its Height Reaching To The Heavens So That It Was Visible Throughout The Earth
Lesson # 117
Please turn in your Bibles to Daniel 4:10.
This evening we will study Daniel 4:11, which records Nebuchadnezzar continuing to describe to Daniel the vision which appeared to him in a dream.
Daniel 4:1 “King Nebuchadnezzar, to each and every person belonging to the nations, ethnicities and language groups, who are living throughout the entire earth: May your prosperity increase! 2 It is pleasing to me to make known the miraculous signs, yes, and wondrous signs at that, which the Most High God performed on my behalf. 3 How great are His miraculous signs! Indeed, how great are His wondrous signs! His kingdom is eternal. In other words, His governmental dominion is from generation to generation. 4 I myself, Nebuchadnezzar was content in my house, specifically prosperous in my palace. 5 I saw a dream, which caused me to be frightened, specifically revelations on my bed. Indeed, visions in my mind caused me to be terrified. 6 Therefore, from me a command was issued for the purpose of causing each and every one of the city of Babylon’s wise men to be brought into my presence in order that they could make known to me the dream’s interpretation. 7 So when the occult priests, necromancers, astrologers as well as diviners entered, I communicated the content of the dream before them but they could not make its interpretation known to me. 8 Then Daniel entered my presence whose name was Belteshazzar according to my god’s name and in addition one who possesses God’s Holy Spirit in him. Next, I communicated the content of the dream before him. 9 ‘O Belteshazzar, chief over the wise men, because I myself know personally that God’s Holy Spirit is in you so that any mystery is by no means too difficult for you, please consider the content of my dream, which I saw. Also, please communicate its interpretation. 10 Now, concerning the visions in my mind on my bed, I was in a trance like state staring as behold a tree was in the midst of the earth. In fact, its height was enormous.’” (My translation)
Daniel 4:11 ‘The tree grew large and became strong and its height reached to the sky, and it was visible to the end of the whole earth.’ (NASB95)
“The tree grew large and became strong” is composed of the third person masculine singular peʿal (Hebrew: qal) active perfect form of the verb reḇā(h) (רְבָה) (reb-aw´), “grew large” which is followed by the masculine singular noun ʾî∙lān (אִילָן) (ee-lawn´), “a tree” and then we have the conjunction wa (וְ) (waw), “and” which is followed by the third person masculine singular peʿal (Hebrew: qal) active perfect form of the verb teqip̄ (תְּקִף) (tek-afe´), “became strong.”
Nebuchadnezzar under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit is employing the figure of “asyndeton” in order to emphasize the statement here in verse 11 which records Nebuchadnezzar continuing to describe the tree that appeared in a vision to him in a dream.
The Holy Spirit through Nebuchadnezzar uses this figure because He wants the reader to dwell upon this description of the tree since as Daniel’s interpretation will reveal, it is a symbolic description of Nebuchadnezzar’s rule in Babylon.
Therefore, this figure sets up the reader for Daniel’s interpretation of this description.
The verb reḇā(h) means “to become massive, to become enormous” in height and width and is used to describe this tree that appeared to Nebuchadnezzar in a vision in a dream and which tree is symbolic of the king.
Therefore, Nebuchadnezzar is describing this tree as “becoming enormous” in height and width.
This verb symbolizes the growth of Nebuchadnezzar’s power and authority.
The conjunction wa is a marker of result meaning that it is introducing an additional description of the tree which is the direct result of the tree becoming enormous in height and width.
The verb teqip̄ means “to be strong” and it too is used to describe the tree that appeared to Nebuchadnezzar in a vision in a dream and which tree symbolized the king.
Therefore, Nebuchadnezzar is describing this tree as “being strong” in the sense of being sturdy as a result of becoming enormous in height and width.
This symbolizes the state of Nebuchadnezzar possessing enormous resources and great political and military power as a result of becoming a world-ruler.
“And its height reached to the sky” is composed of the conjunction wa (וְ) (waw), “and” which is followed by the masculine singular construct form of the noun rûm (רוּם) (room), “height” which is modified by the third person masculine singular pronominal suffix hû(ʾ) (הוּא) (who), “its” and then we have the third person masculine singular peʿal (Hebrew: qal) active perfect form of the verb meṭā(ʾ) (מְטָא) (met-aw´), “reached” which is followed by the preposition lĕ (לְ) (leh), “to” and its object is the masculine plural dual noun šemǎ∙yin (שְׁמַיִן) (shaw-mah´-yin), “the sky.”
This time the conjunction wa is emphatic meaning that the word is introducing a statement that is advancing upon and intensifying the previous statement Nebuchadnezzar made to Daniel.
So the statement introduced by the conjunction wa denotes that Nebuchadnezzar goes from telling Daniel that the tree became enormous in height and width so that it was strong to telling him that this tree’s height reached to the sky so that it was visible to everyone on the earth.
The noun rûm means “height” referring to the tallness of a spatial object and here it refers to the “height” of the tree which was in the vision that Nebuchadnezzar received from God.
The verb meṭā(ʾ) means “to reach” in the sense of extending from a source towards the sky.
The word is used of the tree which appeared in a vision to Nebuchadnezzar in a dream and is employed with the prepositional phrase li šemǎy·yā(ʾ), “to the sky.”
Thus, this expression denotes that the tree reached to the sky in the sense that it grew from a root in the ground as a source to extending to the earth’s atmosphere.
This verb symbolically describes Nebuchadnezzar’s power and authority as extending over the entire earth.
The dual noun šemǎ∙yin means “heavens” referring to both the earth’s atmosphere, i.e. the expanse of space that contains oxygen and seems to be over the earth like a dome as well as space, i.e. the stellar universe.
The word is the object of the preposition lĕ, which is used in a spatial terminative sense meaning that the word is marking the noun šemǎ∙yin, which refers to the earth’s atmosphere and space, as the extent to which the tree reached in height.
It reached “to” the heavens meaning the edge of the earth’s atmosphere before reaching space.
“And it was visible to the end of the whole earth” is composed of the conjunction wa (וְ) (waw), “and” which is followed by the feminine singular construct form of the noun ḥǎzôṯ (חֲזֹות) (khaz-oth´), “visible” which is modified by the third person masculine singular pronominal suffix hû(ʾ) (הוּא) (who), “it” and then we have preposition lĕ (לְ) (leh), “to” and it is followed by the masculine singular construct form of the noun sôp̄ (סֹוף) (sofe), “the end of” and then we have the singular construct noun kōl (כֹּל) (kole), “whole” which is modifying the the feminine singular noun ʾǎrǎʿ (אֲרַע) (ar-ah´), “the earth.”
The conjunction wa is a marker of result meaning that it is introducing a statement which presents the result of the previous statement, which records Nebuchadnezzar describing the tree as reaching to the heavens.
The noun ḥǎzôṯ means “visible” describing the tree which appeared in a vision to Nebuchadnezzar in a dream as capable of being seen by everyone throughout the entire earth as a result of reaching to the heavens.
This is symbolic of the fact that Nebuchadnezzar’s rulership was recognized by everyone throughout the entire earth.
The noun ʾǎrǎʿ means “earth” referring to that which composes planet earth, namely, the dry land, the various bodies of water on the earth and the atmosphere and is modified by the singular construct noun kōl, which means “whole” emphasizing totality.
Thus, Nebuchadnezzar is describing the tree as being visible as far as the boundaries of the “whole” earth.
The noun sôp̄ means “end of, extremity” referring to the boundaries or extremity of the whole earth.
The noun ʾǎrǎʿ is the object of the preposition lĕ, which is used once again in a spatial terminative sense and is marking the noun ʾǎrǎʿ as the extent to which the tree was visible on planet earth.
It was visible “as far as” the ends or boundaries of the whole or entire earth.
This prepositional phrase symbolizes that Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom extended throughout the entire earth with no nation or creature not under his jurisdiction.
Daniel 4:11 ‘The tree became enormous so that it was strong. Indeed, its height reached to the heavens so that it was visible to the extremity of the whole earth.’ (My translation)
Daniel 4:11 records Nebuchadnezzar continuing to describe to Daniel the content of his dream which contained a vision of an enormous tree, which terrified the king.
This description as we noted in verse 10 is poetic.
The vision was from the God of Israel and symbolized Nebuchadnezzar’s world-rulership according to Daniel’s interpretation of this dream which appears in Daniel 4:19-26 and echoes the vision Nebuchadnezzar received from God as recorded in Daniel 2:31-45.
The vision in chapter two and the one here in chapter four emphasize that there is no inhabitant on the face of the earth whether a human being or animal that God has not given into the power of Nebuchadnezzar.
This does not imply that he actually ruled every inch of the globe but rather that God had granted him dominion in whatever direction his ambition led him, which history tells us included Egypt, Nineveh, Arabia, Syria, Tyre, and its Phoenician colonies (Jeremiah 27:5–8).