Daniel 4:35

are reputed as nothing better, are as persons of no account (Bevan). The expression is in part, no doubt, suggested by Isaiah 40:17 (where the verb rendered -counted" is the same as that which in the partic. is here rendered -reputed").

and he doeth&c. He rules alike in heaven and earth.

the army of heaven The Aram. equivalent (representing it also in the Targums) for the Heb. -host of heaven" an expression which denotes sometimes the angels (1 Kings 22:19; Nehemiah 9:6 b), sometimes the stars (Deuteronomy 4:19; Jeremiah 33:22, al.; cf. Nehemiah 9:6 a) [246]. Here angelic beings, as opposed to the -inhabitants of the earth," are doubtless meant: cf., for the general thought, Psalms 103:20.

[246] See the art. Host of Heaven in Hastings" Dictionary of the Bible.

stay his hand strike his hand, viz. for the purpose of arresting it. The same idiom occurs in the Targ. of Ecclesiastes 8:4 b(perhaps borrowed from here); it occurs also in the Talm. more than once, in the sense of to forbid, and (with another word for strike) in Arabic as well. See Ges. Thes.p. 782; Levy, NHWB[247] iii. 72.

[247] HWB.M. Levy, Neuhebräisches und Chaldäisches Wörterbuch, 1876 89.

or say unto him, What hast thou done?] Cf. Isaiah 45:9; Job 9:12; Ecclesiastes 8:4 b.