| 32. Linguistic Exegesis The verse opens with ûmin ʾănāšāʾ {וּמִן־אֲנָשָׁא | û-min ʾă-nā-šāʾ} ‘and from men’, where ûmin {וּמִן־ | û-min} ‘and from’ links this sentence to the prior warning and marks a removal ‘from’ normal human society. The indirect object lāḵ {לָךְ | lāḵ} ‘to you’ placed early before the verb ṭarḏîn {טָרְדִין | ṭār-ḏîn} ‘they will drive’ highlights Nebuchadnezzar as the personal target of the coming judgment. The verb ṭarḏîn {טָרְדִין | ṭār-ḏîn} ‘they will drive’ is Peal imperfect, expressing a future, repeated or sustained action of expulsion.
The prepositional phrase wəʿim ḥêwāṯ bārāʾ {וְעִם־חֵיוָת בָּרָא | wə-ʿim ḥê-wāṯ bā-rāʾ} ‘and with the beasts of the field’ replaces human companionship with animal association, deepening the humiliation. Ləmədōrāḵ {לְמְדֹרָךְ | lə-mə-ḏō-rāḵ} ‘to your dwelling-place’ with the suffix ‘your’ shows that his new ‘home’ is among animals, not in a palace. The sequence ʿiśbāʾ kəttôrîn {עִשְׂבָּא כְתּוֹרִין | ʿiś-bāʾ kə-ttō-rîn} ‘grass like oxen’ and the verb yəṭaʿămûnāḵ {יְטַעֲמוּנָךְ | yə-ṭa-ʿă-mû-nāḵ} ‘they will make you eat’ depict him forced to eat as cattle do, so the syntax presents a progressive degradation of status.
The temporal clause wəšibʿāh ʿiddānîn yaḥlep̄ûn ʿălāḵ {וְשִׁבְעָה עִדָּנִין יַחְלְפוּן עֲלָךְ | wə-šib-ʿāh ʿid-dā-nîn ya-ḥlə-p̄ûn ʿă-lāḵ} ‘and seven times will pass over you’ uses the plural noun ʿiddānîn {עִדָּנִין | ʿid-dā-nîn} ‘times, periods’ and the imperfect verb yaḥlep̄ûn {יַחְלְפוּן | ya-ḥlə-p̄ûn} ‘they will pass’ to describe a divinely fixed span whose exact length is less important than its completion. The following purpose clause ʿaḏ dî tindāʿ {עַד דִּי תִּנְדַּע | ʿaḏ dî tin-daʿ} ‘until you know’ uses dî {דִּי | dî} as a conjunction introducing the goal of the entire experience: the king’s recognition.
The content of that recognition is expressed by two dî-clauses in parallel: dî šallîṭ ʿillāyā bəmalkûṯ ʾănāšāʾ {דִּי שַׁלִּיט עִלָּיָא בְּמַלְכוּת אֲנָשָׁא | dî šal-lîṭ ʿil-lā-yā bə-mal-kûṯ ʾă-nā-šāʾ} ‘that the Most High is ruler in the kingdom of men’ and ûləmān-dî yiṣbēʾ yətəninnāh {וּלְמַן־דִּי יִצְבֵּא יְתְּנִנַּהּ | û-lə-man-dî yiṣ-bēʾ yə-tten-in-nāh} ‘and that He gives it to whomever He wills’. Šallîṭ {שַׁלִּיט | šal-lîṭ} ‘ruling, ruler’ functions predicatively, asserting an ongoing state, while ʿillāyā {עִלָּיָא | ʿil-lā-yā} ‘Most High’ is a divine title that encapsulates transcendence. Bəmalkûṯ ʾănāšāʾ {בְּמַלְכוּת אֲנָשָׁא | bə-mal-kûṯ ʾă-nā-šāʾ} ‘in the kingdom of men’ sets a sharp contrast between human rule and the divine sovereignty that stands over it. The final verbs yiṣbēʾ {יִצְבֵּא | yiṣ-bēʾ} ‘He wills’ and yətəninnāh {יְתְּנִנַּהּ | yə-tten-in-nāh} ‘He will give it’ present the will of the Most High as the sole criterion for the distribution of earthly power.
In English, the formal reconstruction preserves this chain of clauses and relative constructions introduced by ‘that’ to keep the logical progression: expulsion → humiliation → duration → recognition of God’s rule. The dynamic reconstruction reshapes some clauses into shorter sentences and uses expressions like ‘in control over human kingdoms’ to render the predicate šallîṭ ʿillāyā {שַׁלִּיט עִלָּיָא | šal-lîṭ ʿil-lā-yā} ‘the Most High is ruler’ in language that clearly conveys ongoing, comprehensive sovereignty. |