Reading for June 12th

Read Daniel 4.4-18
There are no extra-biblical accounts of Nebuchadnezzar's madness.
The Babylonian king Nabonidus (556-539 BCE) lived in the Arabian desert while his son Belshazzar ruled in this stead.
In verse 8 named Belteshazzar after the name of my god: Belteshazzar means "protect his life" and is styled to resemble the name Bel, a title for the Babylonian city god, Marduk.
In verses 10-17 the tree at the center of the earth: Ancient Near Eastern mythology frequently employs the image of a cosmic tree (see Gen 2-3).
See also Isa 10.5-34; Ezek 31, which portray Assyrian and Egyptian rulers as trees that will be cut down and sent to the netherworld.
In verse 13 Holy watcher: a celestial being (1 Enoch 1.5; 20.1; Jubilees 4.15).
In verse 15 stump and roots in the ground: See Isa 6.13; 11.1.
In verse 16 let his mind be changed: the motif is derived from Nabonidus, but also presupposes Babylonian traditions of Enkidu, the primal man of the Gilgamesh epic, who lived among the animals before he was civilized by a woman.
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