Belshazzar’s feast, and the writing on the wall
5
📚Belshazzar the king made a great feast for a thousand of his nobles, and drank wine in the presence of the thousand.5:1 Belshazzar means “May Bel protect the king”. But Bel (the Babylonian god Marduk) could not and did not do that – vs 30,31. In vs 2,11,18 Nebuchadnezzar is called Belshazzar’s father. As often in the Old Testament the word father here simply means ancestor. Nebuchadnezzar died in 562 BC and was succeeded by his son Evil-Merodach (2 Kings 25:27; Jer 52:31). Belshazzar came to power in Babylon many years later and after a brief reign was slain in 539 BC.⚜
2 📚Belshazzar, while he tasted the wine 📖, gave orders to bring the gold and silver vessels which his father 📖 Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple which was in Jerusalem 📖, so that the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, might drink from them. 3 Then they brought the gold vessels that had been taken from the temple, the house of God which had been in Jerusalem; and the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, drank from them. 4 📚They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone.
5:3-4 They were not acting in ignorance of previous events (vs 22,23). They were showing their utter contempt for Jehovah, the God of Israel, the God of heaven, the only God there is. Having rejected the true God the only gods left to praise were those made by men – Ps 115:3-8.⚜
The writing
5 📚In the same hour 📖 the fingers of a man’s hand appeared and wrote opposite the lampstand on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace. And the king saw the part of the hand that was writing. 6 📚Then the king’s expression 📖 changed, and his thoughts so alarmed him that the joints of his hips became slack and his knees knocked together.
5:6 No doubt Belshazzar had seen the tricks and seeming wonders of his magicians. This was his first encounter with a true sign from heaven.⚜
The failure of Babylon’s wise men
7 📚The king loudly called out orders to bring in the astrologers, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers. And the king spoke and said to the wise men of Babylon, “Whoever reads this writing, and tells me its interpretation, will be clothed in scarlet, and have a chain of gold placed around his neck, and will become the third ruler in the kingdom”.
8 📚So in came all the king’s wise men, but they could not read the writing, or reveal its interpretation to the king. 9 📚Then King Belshazzar was greatly alarmed, and the expression on his face changed, and his nobles were astonished.
5:7-9 In spite of their repeated failures (Dan 2:10-13; 4:7) such people retained their hold on Babylon. But neither threats of death, nor promises of power could get any wisdom out of them, any true interpretation of dreams or events. Such men are as useless today as they were then.⚜
The queen’s advice
10 📚Now the queen, because of the words of the king and his nobles, came into the banquet hall, and the queen 📖 spoke and said, “O king, live forever! Do not let your thoughts alarm you, or let your expression change. 11 📚There is a man in your kingdom in whom is the spirit of the holy gods; and in the days of your father light and understanding and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods, was found in him. King Nebuchadnezzar, your father, your father the king, made him the head over the magicians, astrologers, Chaldeans, and soothsayers, 12 📚because an excellent spirit and knowledge and understanding, the ability to interpret dreams and explain riddles and solve difficult problems were found in this Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar. Now let Daniel be called, and he will reveal the interpretation”.
The king’s words to Daniel
13 📚Then Daniel was brought into the presence of the king. And the king spoke and said to Daniel, “Are you that Daniel who is one of those captives from Judah, whom the king my father brought from Judah?
5:11-13 Evidently Daniel had been shoved aside from the high position he held in the days of Nebuchadnezzar (Dan 2:48), and almost forgotten.⚜
14 📚I have heard of you, that the spirit of the gods is in you, and that light and understanding and excellent wisdom are found in you. 15 📚And now the wise men, the astrologers, have been brought into my presence that they might read this writing, and reveal its interpretation to me, but they could not tell the interpretation of the thing. 16 📚And I have heard of you, that you can give interpretations and solve difficult problems. Now if you can read this writing, and make known to me its interpretation, you will be clothed in scarlet, and have a chain of gold around your neck, and will become the third ruler in the kingdom”.
5:16 Did Belshazzar think that only promises of great reward would move Daniel to declare the truth? How mistaken he was appears in the next verse. God’s true servants never need to be bribed or paid to declare God’s Word, and they do not do so for money or men’s rewards.⚜
Daniel’s words to the king
17 📚Then Daniel answered and said in the king’s presence, “Let your gifts be for yourself, and give your rewards to another. Yet I will read the writing to the king, and make known to him the interpretation.
18 📚“O king, the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar your father a kingdom, and majesty, and glory, and honour. 19 📚And because of the majesty that he gave him, all peoples, nations, and men of all languages, trembled and were afraid in his presence. He killed whomever he wished, and kept alive whomever he wished, and he elevated whomever he wished, and put down whomever he wished. 20 📚But when his heart was lifted up and his mind hardened with pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him, 21 📚and he was driven from the sons of men, and his heart was made like that of the beasts, and his dwelling place was with the wild donkeys. They fed him with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, until he learned that the Most High God rules in the kingdom of men, and that he appoints over it whomever he will.
22 📚“And you, his son 📖, O Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, though you knew 📖 all this, 23 📚but have lifted up yourself 📖 against the Lord of heaven. And they have brought the vessels of his temple to you, and you, and your nobles, your wives, and your concubines, have drunk wine from them. And you have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see or hear or know anything; and the God in whose hands your breath is 📖, and all your ways, you have not glorified. 24 📚So the part of the hand was sent from him, and this inscription was written.
Daniel explains the writing
25 📖“And this is the inscription that was written: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN 📖
26 📚“This is the interpretation of the words: MENE: God has numbered your kingdom, and put an end to it.
5:26 Daniel revealed what the words were and what God meant by them. MN, signifying “mene”, means “numbered”, and the interpretation is that God had counted up the full time He would permit Babylon to be ruled by Belshazzar and the time was over.⚜
27 📚TEKEL: You have been weighed in the balances and found wanting.
28 📚PERES: Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians”.
5:28 Daniel gives a double meaning to the three consonants PRS. “Peres” meant “divided”, “Paras” meant “Persia”. Divided here would mean broken up, ended. The end of the Babylonian empire was at hand, and the Persians would take it over.⚜
29 📚Then Belshazzar gave orders, and they clothed Daniel in scarlet, and put a chain of gold around his neck, and made a proclamation concerning him, that he would be the third ruler in the kingdom.
5:29 Though the interpretation brought bad news to Belshazzar he did as he said he would in v 16. Daniel accepted the position probably with a view to the influence he might bring to bear on the new rulers of Babylon for the good of the Jews.⚜
The fulfillment
30 📚In that night Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans was slain.
5:30 Babylon was a large city with very high and thick walls, and strongly fortified. But it fell to the Medes and Persians just as God said it would (Dan 2:39; Isa 13:1, 17, 18; Jer 50:1-2).⚜
31 📚And Darius the Mede 📖 took the kingdom, being about sixty-two years old.