Daniel 4:1

all the people s, nations, and languages Daniel 3:4.

that dwell in all the earth The hyperbole seems to us extravagant; but it must be remembered that -all the earth" in the O.T. has not the meaning which we attach to the expression, but denotes (substantially) Western Asia, from Elam and Media on the E., to Egypt and the -isles of the sea" (i.e. the E. part of the Mediterranean Sea [235]) on the West, and that the greater part of this did fall within the real or nominal sovereignty of the Assyrian and Babylonian kings (cf. of Nebuchadnezzar himself, Jeremiah 25:26, "all the kingdoms which are upon the face of the earth," and the preceding enumeration, Daniel 4:17; Jeremiah 27:5-6). Standing titles of the Assyrian kings are -king of multitudes" (of the world), -king of the four quarters of the earth"; and the same titles are adopted by Nabu-na'id, the last king of Babylon (KB[236] iii. 2, p. 97). The Persian kings call themselves similarly, -the great king, the king of kings, the king of the lands, the king of this great earth" (RP[237][238] ix. 73 ff.).

[235] Though of course a few places to the W. of this were known, e.g. Tarshish.

[236] B.Eb. Schrader, Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek(transliterations and translations of Assyrian and Babylonian inscriptions), 1889 1900.

[237] P.Records of the Past, first and second series, respectively.

[238] Records of the Past, first and second series, respectively.

Peace be multiplied unto you so Daniel 6:25: cf. 1 Peter 1:2; 2 Peter 1:2.