Nebuchadnezzar, the ruler of the whole world, (96) to whom even the
wild animals paid obedience, his pet was a lion with a snake coiled
about its neck, (97) did not escape punishment for his sins. He was
chastised as none before him. He whom fear of God had at first held
back from a war against Jerusalem, and who had to be dragged forcibly,
as he sat on his horse, to the Holy of Holies (98) by the archangel
Michael, he later became so arrogant that he thought himself a god,
(99) and cherished the plan of enveloping himself in a cloud, so that
he might live apart from men. (100) A heavenly voice resounded: "O thou
wicked man, son of a wicked man, and descendant of Nimrod the wicked,
who incited the world to rebel against God! Behold, the days of the
years of a man are threescore years and ten, or perhaps by reason of
strength fourscore years. It takes five hundred years to traverse the
distance of the earth from the first heaven, and as long a time to
penetrate from the bottom to the top of the first heaven, and not less
are the distances from one of the seven heavens to the next. How, then,
canst thou speak of ascending like unto the Most High 'above the
heights of the clouds'?" (101) For this transgression of deeming
himself more than a man, he was punished by being made to live for some
time as a beast among beasts, treated by them as though he were one of
them. (102) For forty days (103) he led this life. As far down as his
navel he had the appearance of an ox, and the lower part of his body
resembled that of a lion. Like an ox he ate grass, and like a lion he
attacked a curious crowd, but Daniel spent his time in prayer,
entreating that the seven years of this brutish life allotted to
Nebuchadnezzar might be reduced to seven months. His prayer was
granted. At the end of forty days reason returned to the king, the next
forty days he passed in weeping bitterly over his sins, and in the
interval that remained to complete the seven months he again lived the
life of a beast. (104)