17. The tree that you saw, large and strong, its top touching the heavens, that could be seen by the whole earth,
18. its leaves beautiful, its fruit abundant, providing food for all, under which the wild beasts lived, and in whose branches the birds of the air dwelt—
19. you are that tree, O king, large and strong! Your majesty has become so great as to touch the heavens, and your rule reaches to the ends of the earth.
20. As for the king’s vision of a holy watcher, who came down from heaven and proclaimed: ‘Cut down the tree and destroy it, but leave its stump in the earth. Bound with iron and bronze, let him be fed with the grass of the field, and bathed with the dew of heaven; let his lot be with wild beasts till seven years pass over him’—
21. here is its meaning, O king, here is the sentence that the Most High has passed upon my lord king:
22. You shall be cast out from human society and dwell with wild beasts; you shall be given grass to eat like an ox and be bathed with the dew of heaven; seven years shall pass over you, until you know that the Most High is sovereign over human kingship and gives it to whom he will.
23. The command that the stump of the tree is to be left means that your kingdom shall be preserved for you, once you have learned that heaven is sovereign.