While the word was in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven,.... Before the king had done speaking in the above boasting manner, an articulate voice from heaven was heard by him, and all about him, formed by the angels, and much like what the Jews call Bath Kol; see Act 12:21, so Abydenus (g), in the account he gives of Nebuchadnezzar's oration to the people, relates, that when the king had spoke it, , immediately he disappeared: saying, O King Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken, the kingdom is departed from thee; that is, the administration of it; for he was not deposed, or declared to be no longer king; his office was not taken away from him, and another king set upon the throne; only the administration was taken into other hands, either of his wife or son, or his nobles; he being unfit for it, till such time as his reason returned to him. (g) Apud Euseb. ut supra. (Praepar. Evangel. l. 9. c. 41. p. 457.)