Chapter 81

¹ So when the angel came down from heaven and said, “Cut down the tree and shake off its branches, and pluck off its leaves and scatter its fruit; let the beasts be shaken from beneath it and the birds from its branches”—this signifies the plot made against the king by the satraps and the forces under him.

² And he, driven out by them, fled into the wilderness, and his kingdom was taken from him, along with the authority and the majesty he had before; and he who once boasted and said, “Who is the god who will deliver you out of my hands?” afterward, stooped pitiably toward the ground, passed his life in the mountains roaring among the beasts, fearing his own satraps, lest he be killed by them.

³ And for this reason the Scripture says: “In the grass outside and in the dew of heaven he will lie down, and with wild beasts will be his portion in the grass of the earth; his heart will be changed from that of men, and the heart of a beast will be given to him.”

⁴ For the great king and ruler no longer passed his life as a man dwelling in the palace, but living solitary in desolate places he ate grass and herbage, until his heart was changed and became like that of a beast feeding in the woods and caves, until his hair grew like lions’ and his nails grew large like birds’ and seven seasons were changed upon him. —

⁵ For God the Most High decreed that these things should so come to pass, as Daniel says: “It is the decree of the Most High that has come upon my lord the king.”

⁶ And the Word, having heard the counsel of the Father, came down from the heavens and announced the will of the Father to the angels, as the Scripture says: “A holy one came down from the heavens.”

⁷ And the angels questioned the Word: “What has the Master commanded us to do?” For the questioning belongs to holy ones.

⁸ And the Word said to them: “Thus says God the Most High: Cut down the tree and pluck off its branches and shake off its leaves.”

⁹ And they, having heard, troubled the forces of the king, so that they might take away his kingdom.

¹⁰ For all the nations have been handed over to angels, as John says in the Apocalypse: “And I heard one saying, ‘Loose the four angels who are seated at the great river Euphrates’”—who were of the Persians, Medes, Assyrians, and Babylonians.