Daniel 4:13

I saw in the visions of my head upon my bed,.... The king goes on to relate what other things presented themselves to his imagination in his dream, concerning this tree which signified himself: and,

I saw in the visions of my head upon my bed, and, behold, a watcher and an holy one came down from heaven; I saw ... a watcher and an holy one came down from heaven - rather, 'even an holy one.' Only

By a watcher is meant an angel, a holy or good angel, the instruments of God, and his messengers to execute God’ s judgments, which they watch constantly to perform, ,21.

Daniel 4:13 I saw in the visions of my head upon my bed, and, behold, a watcher and an holy one came down from heaven;Ver. 13. And, behold, a watcher and an holy one,] i.e., A holy angel, active and watchful to know and do the will and commands of God for the good of the Church. Hence angels are said to be full of eyes, and to stand always beholding the face of God, as waiting an employment. How ready was that angel here to interrupt the proud king from heaven, and to tell him his doom! So in the next words.

(13) A watcher and a holy one—i.e., a holy one who is watchful; translated “angel” by the LXX., but simply transliterated into “Eir” by Theodotion. The word is used twice by the king, and once by Daniel (Daniel 4:23), but it is to be noticed that the prophet substitutes “the Most High” for the words of the king in Daniel 4:17). We must suppose that Nebuchadnezzar dreamed in a language familiar to himself, and that the objects of his dream were things with which his Babylonian education had made him acquainted. According to his mythology, the god of Nergal was regarded as “manifesting himself in watching,” so that he may have dreamed that he witnessed a descent of one of his deities. In this he is corrected by Daniel, being assured that the whole is sent from heaven, that the decree is ordered by the one true God, and that the holy watcher is an angel of God.

Verse 13. A watcher and a holy one] These are both angels; but, according to the Chaldean oracles, of different orders. They appear, according to their opinions, to be a kind of judges of human actions who had the power of determining the lot of men; see Daniel 4:17.

13. a watcher] i.e. not a guardian, but a wakeful one (Aq., Symm., ἐγρήγορος, Vulg. vigil); so Daniel 4:17; Daniel 4:23. The term denotes an angel,—or, possibly, a particular class of angels,—so called, either as being ever ready to fulfil the Divine behests, or as being ever wakeful for some particular purpose (e.g. praise). It is of frequent occurrence in the Book of Enoch (in the Greek ἐγρήγοροι), where it is applied usually (i. 5, x. 9, 15, xii. 4, xiii. 10, xiv. 1, 3, xv. 2, xvi. 1, 2, xci. 15) to the fallen angels, but it is also (xii. 3, and perhaps xii. 2) used of the holy angels, though it is not perfectly clear (see the note in Dillmann’s edition, p. 104 f.) whether it denotes them generally, or whether it is the name of a particular class (cf. Charles on i. 5, xxxix. 12): the use of the synonyms ‘the holy angels who watch’ in xx. 1 (in the Ethiopic, but not in the Greek text[240]) of six archangels, and ‘those who sleep not’ in xxxix. 12, 13, xl. 2, lxi. 12, lxxi. 7, of certain exalted angels who incessantly hymn the Almighty, and guard His throne, does not entirely remove the uncertainty. The same word which is used here is also often used of angels in Syriac; see Payne Smit[241] Thes. Syr. col. 2843–4. [240] See p. 356 in Charles’ edition (Oxford, 1893). [241] yne Smith R. Payne Smith, Thesaurus Syriacus.and a holy one] another term denoting an angel: in the O.T., Job 5:1; Job 15:15, Psalms 89:5; Psalms 89:7, Zechariah 14:5, Daniel 8:13 [A.V. ‘saint’ in these passages: see the note on Daniel 8:13]; and repeatedly in the Book of Enoch, i. 9 (whence Judges 14), xii. 2, xiv. 23, xxxix. 5, &c. (see Charles’ note on i. 9).

I saw in the visions of my head upon my bed - In the visions that passed before me as I lay upon my bed, Daniel 4:10.

13, 14. A holy one from heaven (compare Zechariah 4:10, where “seven eyes” should probably read “seven watchers”) — the “guardian angel” of Babylon (compare Daniel 10:13-14) — pronounces the death