4:13 While I was watching in my mind’s visions on my bed,
a holy sentinel came down from heaven.
4:14 He called out loudly as follows:
‘Chop down the tree and lop off its branches!
Strip off its foliage
and scatter its fruit!
Let the animals flee from under it
and the birds from its branches!
4:15 But leave its taproot in the ground,
with a band of iron and bronze around it
surrounded by the grass of the field.
Let it become damp with the dew of the sky,
and let it live with the animals in the grass of the land.
4:16 Let his mind be altered from that of a human being,
and let an animal’s mind be given to him,
and let seven periods of time go by for him.
4:17 This announcement is by the decree of the sentinels;
this decision is by the pronouncement of the holy ones,
so that those who are alive may understand
that the Most High has authority over human kingdoms,
and he bestows them on whomever he wishes.
He establishes over them even the lowliest of human beings.’