The most famous sufferer of this condition was King Nebuchadnezzar, who in the Book of Daniel “was driven from men and did eat grass as oxen”. Nebuchadnezzar was the king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire from 605BC to 562BC.
Who ate grass for seven years in the Bible? Nebuchadnezzar had a dream in which an angelic watcher appeared to him and decreed that for seven years, Nebuchadnezzar's mind would be taken and he would eat grass like an ox.
According to Daniel, the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar suffers from a mental illness, and lives isolated for seven years, until he acknowledges the power of the one God.
Nebuchadnezzar dreams of a great tree that shelters the whole world, but an angelic "watcher" appears and decrees that the tree must be cut down and that for seven years, he will have his human mind taken away and will eat grass like an ox.
He died peacefully of natural causes in the city he had built after a reign of 43 years but Babylon would not last even another 25 after his death.
Nebuchadnezzar was humbled by God for boasting about his achievements, lost his sanity and lived like an animal for seven years, according to Daniel, chapter 4. When his sanity was later restored he praised and honoured God.
Later in his reign, he went to war with Assyria and had some initial success before suffering defeat at the hands of the Assyrian king Ashur-Dan I.
Verse 33: That very hour the word was fulfilled concerning Nebuchadnezzar; he was driven from men and ate grass like oxen; his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hair had grown like eagles' feathers and his nails like birds' claws.
The Jews thereafter referred to Nebuchadnezzar, the greatest enemy they had faced until that point, as a "destroyer of nations". The biblical Book of Jeremiah paints Nebuchadnezzar as a cruel enemy, but also as God's appointed ruler of the world and a divine instrument to punish disobedience.
Nebuchadnezzar is humbled twice by God: when he tries to punish the Israelites for refusing to worship an idol and when God punishes him with seven years of madness.
Solomon was the biblical king most famous for his wisdom. In 1 Kings he sacrificed to God, and God later appeared to him in a dream, asking what Solomon wanted from God. Solomon asked for wisdom in order to better rule and guide his people.
So Samuel said, “Enough!” And he told Saul that because he had rejected the word of the Lord, God had now rejected him as king over Israel.
Job had everything — a good family, a good name and plenty of wealth. But then Satan went to God and asked for permission to alter Job's good fortune. Then tragedy strikes and Job loses everything: his children, his wealth, his livestock, his crops, his health and even the relationship of his wife and friends.
Earlier in Daniel 4 we learn that Nebuchadnezzar had a dream that made him afraid. Daniel interpreted the dream, telling the king that he would become like an animal if he did not give up his sinful pride. But Nebuchadnezzar didn't listen. What was the cure for Nebuchadnezzar's sin?
The reasoning is two fold: First, our stomachs have a difficult time digesting certain kinds of raw leaves and grasses. Second, grass contains a lot of silica, an abrasive substance that wears down your teeth. Unlike grazing animals like cows, we don't have teeth that continue to grow well into adulthood.
Nebuchadnezzar is furious that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego refused to worship his golden statue. He gives them one more chance to bow to the image, and if not, they will be thrown into the fiery furnace.
The remains of the city are in present-day Hillah, Babil Governorate, Iraq, about 85 km (53 mi) south of Baghdad, and its boundaries have been based on the perimeter of the ancient outer city walls, an area of about 1,054.3 hectares (2,605 acres).
Nebuchadnezzar conquered Assyria, Egypt, and Judah, but his most famous conquest is that of Jerusalem, which is recorded in the Bible. Some refer to him as a ruthless, cruel king who destroyed Jerusalem and forced the Jewish people into exile.
He and his leaders were taken before King Nebuchadrezzar at Riblah, in Syria, where Zedekiah's sons were slain in his presence and he, a disloyal vassal, was blinded and carried in chains to Babylon, where he was imprisoned until his death.
At the time that Nebuchadnezzar first carried the Jews captive into Babylon (about 605 B.C.), Daniel was chosen as one of the choicest Jewish youths to be taken to Babylon and trained for service in the king's court.
Daniel kept the welfare of Nebuchadnezzar in mind continually, and when the king was condemned by God to live as a beast for a certain period Daniel prayed that the period of punishment should be shortened, and his prayer was granted.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (Hebrew names Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah) are figures from the biblical Book of Daniel, primarily chapter 3. In the narrative, the three Hebrew men are thrown into a fiery furnace by Nebuchadnezzar II, King of Babylon for refusing to bow to the king's image.
Strengths and Weaknesses. As a brilliant strategist and ruler, Nebuchadnezzar followed two wise policies: He allowed conquered nations to retain their own religion, and he imported the smartest of the conquered peoples to help him govern. At times he recognized Jehovah, but his fidelity was short-lived.
As a result, the king of the Babylonian Empire, Nebuchadnezzar II, laid siege to Jerusalem beginning in 587 BCE. By the following year, Judah and Jerusalem, including the Temple of Solomon, had been conquered and destroyed.
(Inside Science) -- In the 6th century B.C., the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II, fearful that the Egyptians would cut off the Babylonian trade routes to the eastern Mediterranean region known as the Levant, invaded and laid siege to Jerusalem to block them.