So too Nebuchadrezzar in his dream had seen a tree in the midst of the earth, of stately height, which reached to heaven and overshadowed the world, with fair leaves and abundant fruit, giving large nourishment to all mankind, and shade to the beasts of the field and fowls of the heaven. The LXX. adds with glowing exaggeration, "The sun and moon dwelled in it, and gave light to the whole earth. And, behold, a watcher [_'îr_][383] and a holy one [_qaddîsh_][384] came down from heaven, and bade, Hew down, and lop, and strip the tree, and scatter his fruit, and scare away the beasts and birds from it, but leave the stump in the greening turf bound by a band of brass and iron, and let it be wet with heaven's dews,"--and then, passing from the image to the thing signified, "and let his portion be with the beasts in the grass of the earth. Let his heart be changed from man's, and let a beast's heart be given unto him, and let seven times pass over him." We are not told to whom the mandate is given--that is left magnificently vague. The object of this "sentence of the watchers, and utterance of the holy ones," is that the living may know that the Most High is the Supreme King, and can, if He will, give rule even to the lowliest. Nebuchadrezzar, who tells us in his inscription that "he never forgave impiety," has to learn that he is nothing, and that God is all,--that "He pulleth down the mighty from their seat, and exalteth the humble and meek."[385] This dream Nebuchadrezzar bids Daniel to interpret, "because thou hast the spirit of a Holy God in thee." Before we proceed let us pause for a moment to notice the agents of the doom. It is one of the never-sleeping ones--an _'îr_ and a holy one--who flashes down from heaven with the mandate; and he is only the mouthpiece of the whole body of the watchers and holy ones.