Big Idea: The sovereignty of God over heaven and earth is demonstrated in the judgment of sin and the restoration of those who genuinely repent.

Understanding the Text

See the unit on 4:1–18 for a discussion of the larger context, structure, and comparisons of this literary unit. Against this backdrop, 4:28–37 concludes this narrative, and brief statements of time (“twelve months” [4:29] and “at the end of that time” [4:34]) identify its two parts: God’s punishment of Nebuchadnezzar (4:28–33; with subdividing markers at vv. 28, 31, 33) and God’s restoration of him (4:34–37; with subdividing markers at vv. 34, 36). The latter resumes the king’s first-person narrative, framing his confession with the resumptive “I, Nebuchadnezzar” (cf. 4:4, 18). It also reaffirms God’s sovereign dominion (…