Nevertheless, leave the stump of his roots in the earth
Let him not be utterly destroyed, or his life taken away; but let him continue in being; though in a forlorn condition, yet with hope of restoration; for a tree may be cut down to the stump, and yet revive again, ( Job 14:7-9 ) and let his kingdom remain: even with a band of iron and brass;
which some think was done to preserve it and to show that his kingdom remained firm and immovable; but that is meant by the former clause, ( Daniel 4:26 ) , rather the allusion is to his distracted condition afterwards related; it being usual to bind madmen with chains of iron or brass, to keep them from hurting themselves and others, as in ( Mark 5:4 ) : in the tender grass of the field;
where his dwelling should be, not in Babylon, and in his fine palace, living sumptuously as he now did; but in the field, grazing there like a beast, and like one that is feddered and confined to a certain place: and let it be wet with the dew of heaven;
suggesting that this would not only be his case in the daytime; but that he should lie all night in the field, and his body be wet all over with the dew that falls in the night, as if he had been dipped in a dyer's vat, as the word F13 signifies; and Jarchi says it has the signification of dipping; and not be in a stately chamber, and on a bed of down, but on a plot of grass, exposed to all the inclemencies of the air: and let his portion be with the beasts in the grass of the earth;
instead of feeding on royal dainties, as he had all his days, let him eat grass like the beasts of the field, as it seems he did.