According to the traditional view, the Book of Daniel in the Bible was written by the prophet Daniel, who was a Jewish exile living in Babylon during the 6th century BCE. The book is divided into two main parts: the historical stories of Daniel and his friends, and the apocalyptic visions of the end of the world.

Chapter 4 of the book is one of the apocalyptic visions, and it tells the story of a dream that King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had, in which he saw a tree that was cut down but then grew back again. The chapter includes an interpretation of the dream by Daniel, who explains that the tree represents the king and the cutting down of the tree represents his eventual downfall.