Daniel 5— The Fall of Babylon - The Head of Gold
1 Belshazzar the king made a great feast for a thousand of his lords, and drank wine in the presence of the thousand. 2 While he tasted the wine, Belshazzar gave the command to bring the gold and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple which had been in Jerusalem, that the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines might drink from them. 3 Then they brought the gold vessels that had been taken from the temple of the house of God which had been in Jerusalem; and the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines drank from them.
4 They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze and iron, wood and stone.
"The author ended the previous chapter with the story of King Nebuchadnezzar's encounter with God by quoting the king’s words: ‘Those who walk in pride He is able to humble' (4:37b). In the opening of this chapter, he turns the reader's attention to the last day of life of the last ruler of Babylon. This was also the last day of Babylon’s supremacy of the world. The author does not even mention the intervening reigns of no less than four Neo-Babylonian kings. The focus is solely on Belshazzar, whom he does not formally introduced to the reader. As Long has observed, ‘He is not introduced; he springs into action.’” (Zdravko Stefanovic) Belshazzar... "Having done with Nebuchadnezzar, we here enter upon the history of his descendant Belshazzar; and a short history it is. We have here, his impious feast; his prophanation of the vessels of the sanctuary: his awful alarm and death.” (Hawker's Poor Man's Commentary)
The king.... “Some older critical scholars claimed that Belshazzar was never a king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire… However, modern discoveries have shown that Belshazzar acted as king during his father's frequent and prolonged absences from Babylon. ‘The last actual Chaldean king, Nabonidus, 'entrusted the kingship' in 539 B.C. to his son Bel-sar-usur during his ten-year absence from Babylon, returning as the threat from Cyrus grew…” (Constable's Notes) So, the acting king made a great feast.
"Since the text does not specify what type of state banquet is in question, several theses have been advanced attempting to explain… According to a midrashic interpretation, 'Belshazzar had miscalculated [Jeremiah's seventy years of exile], and had thought that the time was already passed: it was in contempt for Jeremiah's words that he decided to desecrate the temple vessels that night.' [Hilton]"(Daniel -Wisdom to the Wise by Zdravko Stefanovic)
The king drank wine with a thousand of his lords (verse 1) …and his wives and concubines (verse 3), yet: "Curiously enough, neither Daniel nor the queen mother was present at this banquet until later, when they came to help solve the king's problem." (Zdravko Stefanovic) I believe the text soon supports that the queen mother was a believer in the God of the Hebrews, along with Daniel. And they separated themselves from this evil feast.
While he tasted the wine, Belshazzar gave the command…(verse 2) “Under the influence of wine, Belshazzar commanded.' Since the word 'em' can mean 'order' (cf. Daniel 3:10), the original Aramaic text says that Belshazzar 'mar bitem hamra', 'spoke on the order of wine,' implying that the king was acting under the influence of the wine when he ordered that the gold ... goblets be brought in." (Daniel -Wisdom to the Wise by Zdravko Stefanovic) “Whiles he tasted the wine - He relished it, got heated by it, and when wine got fully in, wit went wholly out; and in consequence he acted the profane part of which we immediately read.” (Clarke) But his actions were a course that he had set in his sobriety.
Only the golden goblets are mentioned-- not the silver, perhaps because this kingdom which controlled the Jews was the head of gold. But it was about to fall to another kingdom- “That of the Persians, fitly set forth by silver, for their exceeding great wealth mentioned by many heathen authors. The two silver arms are the Medes and Persians, meeting both in Cyrus, as the two arms do in the breast..." (Trapp’s Commentary)
They praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze and iron, wood and stone. “The materials of the idols listed in the text total six, the number typical of Babylon.… Belshazzar serve the moon god Sin, just as his father Nabonidus did. During this banquet, the idols were praised while the God of the Hebrews was humiliated by the use of the holy vessels from his temple. Faced with the steady approach of the Medo-Persian army, it is very likely that Babylon's officers were 'hoping that their gods will bring victory for them as they had in the days of Nebuchadnezzar's great conquest.' (Walton, Matthews, Chavalas)" (Daniel -Wisdom to the Wise by Zdravko Stefanovic)
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 wrote. 6 Then the king’s countenance changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his hips were loosened and his knees knocked against each other.
"The fingers. In biblical texts, God's finger often represented his supernatural power, whether it is work of creating the heavens (Psalm 8:3) or sending plagues on Egypt (Exodus 8:19) or writing the Commandments on tablets of stone (Exodus 31:18; Deuteronomy 9:10) or even driving out demons (Luke 11:20).” (Daniel -Wisdom to the Wise by Zdravko Stefanovic)
Naturally: ”There is something blood-curdling in the visibility of but a part of the hand and its busy writing. Whose was the body, and where was it? No wonder if the riotous mirth was frozen into awe, and the wine lost flavour." (Alexander Maclaren) But spiritually, ”the finger of Yahweh, the same God whom Belshazzar had been mocking, wrote on the wall. Was this the same devine finger that centuries before wrote on stone the Commandment against idolatry? John 8:6 says that on one occasion, Jesus 'bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger' words that likely described the secret sins of his opponents. Thus it is safe to propose that 'this was no 'human hand' but the hand of God.'" (Zdravko Stefanovic)
“God's written word is enough to put the proudest, boldest sinner in a fright. What we see of God, the part of the hand that writes… in the book of the Scriptures, should fill us with awful thoughts concerning that part which we do not see. If this be the finger of God, what is his arm when made bare? And what is He?... God can, in a moment, make the heart of the stoutest sinner to tremble; and there needs no more than to let loose his own thoughts upon him; they will give him trouble enough. No bodily pain can equal the inward agony which sometimes seizes the sinner in the midst of mirth, carnal pleasures, and worldly pomp. Sometimes terrors cause a man to flee to Christ for pardon and peace; but many cry out for fear of wrath, who are not humbled for their sins, and who seek relief by lying vanities.” (Mathew Henry)…gods of gold and silver, bronze and iron, wood and stone.
And the king saw part of a hand that wrote. The others saw the writing but not the hand itself. “Just as Nebuchadnezzar was probably the only person who saw the fourth person in the fiery furnace (Daniel 3:24, 25), so here, Belshazzar appears to be the only one who sees the hand that was writing on the wall.” (Daniel -Wisdom to the Wise by…” (Zdravko Stefanovic)
"Literally the text says… 'The joints of his loin were loosened,' which meant that Belshazzar lost physical strength (cf. Isaiah 21:3).
[‘Therefore my loins are filled with pain; pangs have taken hold of me, like the pangs of a woman in labor. I was distressed when I heard it; I was dismayed when I saw it.’- Isaiah 21:3)
[Also] Isaiah 13:8 describes the impact of the siege of Babylon on its officers and soldiers in the following way: 'Terror will seize them, pain and anguish will grip them; they will writhe like a woman in labor. They will look aghast at each other, their faces aflame.'" (Zdravko Stefanovic)
7 The king cried aloud to bring in the astrologers, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers. The king spoke, saying to the wise men of Babylon, “Whoever reads this writing, and tells me its interpretation, shall be clothed with purple and have a chain of gold around his neck; and he shall be the third ruler in the kingdom.” 8 Now all the king’s wise men came, but they could not read the writing, or make known to the king its interpretation.
The king offered the reward of royalty to anyone who could interpret the writing. “The mention of purple clothing ,which denotes royal authority, may suggest coregency.” (Stefanovic) The king was offering partnership in a principality that no longer did not belonged to him. “But what did he write!” Who would obtain the honors offered by the outgoing king. “In truth, none of the company could tell, for none of them could read it..” (Hawker’s Poor Man Bible Commentary)
9 Then King Belshazzar was greatly troubled, his countenance was changed, and his lords were astonished. 10 The queen, because of the words of the king and his lords, came to the banquet hall. The queen spoke, saying, “O king, live forever! Do not let your thoughts trouble you, nor let your countenance 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, were found in him; and King Nebuchadnezzar your father—your father the king—made him chief of the magicians, astrologers, Chaldeans, andsoothsayers. 12 Inasmuch as an excellent spirit, knowledge, understanding, interpreting dreams, solving riddles, and explaining enigmas were found in this Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar, now let Daniel be called, and he will give the interpretation.”
“By this not only was the astonishment of the king heightened, but the officers of state also were put into confusion. ‘In משׁתּבּשׁין lies not merely the idea of consternation, but of confusion, of great commotion in the assembly.’ (Hitzig). The whole company was thrown into confusion. The magnates spoke without intelligence, and were perplexed about the matter.” (Keil and Delitzsch)
The queen. Naturally, the queen would be thought to be the wife of the aforementioned king. “However, there are a number of reasons to prefer the view that she was really the ‘queen mother.’ She could even have been the surviving wife of Nebuchadnezzar… Belshazzar's wives had been participating in this banquet (Daniel 5:2), but this woman now entered it apparently for the first time. She also spoke to the king more as a mother than as a wife. [Note: Arthur Jeffery, ‘The Book of Daniel, Introduction and Exegesis,’ in The Interpreter's Bible, 6:426.] Moreover, she spoke as one who had personal acquaintance with Daniel's earlier interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar's second dream (cf. Daniel 4:8-9; Daniel 4:18). Probably this woman was Belshazzar's mother and the daughter of Nebuchadnezzar. [Note: Archer, ‘Daniel,’ p. 72.] The queen mother was often a significant figure who exerted considerable influence in ancient courts (cf. 1 Kings 15:13; 2 Kings 11:1-3; 2 Kings 24:12; Jeremiah 13:18). This woman proceeded to do for Belshazzar what Arioch had done for Nebuchadnezzar, namely: to bring Daniel to the king's attention (cf. Daniel 2:25).” (Constable's Notes) It is the sort of thing that the imprisoned John did for his disciples in directing them to Jesus. (Matthew 11:3; Lukr 7:19)
“The Greek translators tried to soften the reading of this verse by inserting a detail saying that the king called for the queen to come” to the banquet hall… or “mistya, 'the house of drinking.’” (Stefanovic) But notice that Daniel was not present either with the drunken revelers, nor with the consort of wise men. “Daniel possibly was out of his place, by his own resignation, or his enemies’ malicious contrivance, and was willing to withdraw himself from the court, and from the company of the soothsayers, and would not be reckoned one of them…” (Poole)for the feast mocked the Hebrew god. “In a twist of irony, it is 'from within his own [palace and] court that a witness[es] to the God of the exiles comes to Belshazzar.' (Zdravko Stefanovic)
There is a man in thy kingdom… Belshazzar was certainly familiar with who Daniel was, considering that Nebuchadnezzar had promoted him to a high rank. But he rejected him and his god. “This argues him to have been a weak and wicked prince, according to the character which the historians gave of him…” (Coke) "Thus this old queen speaketh of ancient things." (Trapp)
“I love to tell the story of unseen things above, Of Jesus and His glory, of Jesus and His love.
I love to tell the story, because I know ’tis true; It satisfies my longings as nothing else can do.
Refrain— I love to tell the story, ’twill be my theme in glory,
To tell the old, old story of Jesus and His love.” (A. Katherine Hankey)
Daniel was described by Nebuchadnezzar as a man “in whom is the spirits of the holy gods.” And the queen remembers and repeats Nebuchadnezzar's language (Da 4:8). AND: ”The confidence that she has in Daniel is astounding, because she says, 'Call for Daniel, and he will tell what the writing means (5:12)'. Faced with such clear conviction, Belshazzar ‘has no choice but to summon Daniel.' His bypassing Daniel previously may have been deliberate (cf. 1 Kings 22:5–18), since he could not predict the kind of message he would get from him." (Stefanovic) Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar… The name means "Bel protect the king." (Tyndall) ”The queen mother uses both the Hebrew and the Babylonian names. If Nebuchadnezzar originally named Daniel Belshazzar, then we have here another case of irony, because the godly prophet and the godless king are namesakes.” (Zdravko Stefanovic)
13 Then Daniel was brought in before the king. The king spoke, and said to Daniel, “Are you that Daniel who is one of the captives from Judah, whom my father the king brought from Judah? 14 I have heard of you, that the Spirit of God is in you, and that light and understanding and excellent wisdom are found in you. 15 Now the wise men, the astrologers, have been brought in before me, that they should read this writing and make known to me its interpretation, but they could not give the interpretation of the thing. 16 And I have heard of you, that you can give interpretations and explain enigmas. Now if you can read the writing and make known to me its interpretation, you shall be clothed with purple and have a chain of gold around your neck, and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom.”
Belshazzar spoke of Daniel as "one of the exiles." "Note that the queen mother did not describe Daniel's position in Babylon in this way. Rather she spoke of him as the chief of Babylon's wisemen." (Zdravco Stefanovic) “Daniel had deserved of the Babylonian state to have been better known of Belshazzar, and better respected; but this is the world’s wages.” (Trapp) “Though he was in high esteem for his skill in the days of Nebuchadnezzar, who had him in high honour, for the Spirit of God in him; yet he being dead, and other kings coming on that had never tried his abilities nor known his merits, (as it was in Joseph’s case, Exodus 1:8) hereby he came to be neglected and despised, as those words seem to import, Daniel 5:13, Art thou that Daniel of the captivity of the children of Judah, etc…?” (Poole’s Annotations)
“Babylon was the head of the ancient world at the time of this episode; and yet its king, calling for the wisest men on earth, as they were alleged to be, found them absolutely ignorant of any information that could have been valuable to the king. But, is it any different now? The answer is NO! All that men know of the future, or of the will of Almighty God, is found in the Bible. Only within its sacred pages may one learn how the lost fellowship with our Creator may be restored and how a mortal may be rescued from the certain destruction that is coming upon all of Adam's rebellious race. As regards such verities as life and death, time and eternity, heaven and hell, life after death, the resurrection of the dead, the eternal Judgment, the eternal destiny of men, or any other of those most important problems confronting the human mind, our brilliant educators, philosophers, and intellectuals are on an absolute parity with the magicians, the astrologers, the Chaldeans, and the soothesayers of ancient Babylon. Only in the Word of God may one find the ‘Words of Life.’ Despite this, the world rushes on in the gathering shadows neglecting its only true source of that knowledge which is able to save the soul.” (Coffman)
17 Then Daniel answered, and said before the king, “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, glory and honor. 19 And because of the majesty that He gave him, all peoples, nations, and languages trembled and feared before him. Whomever he wished, he executed; whomever he wished, he kept alive; whomever he wished, he set up; and whomever he wished, he put down. 20 But when his heart was lifted up, and his spirit was hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him. 21 Then he was driven from the sons of men, his heart was made like the beasts, and his dwelling was with the wild donkeys. They fed him with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till he knew that the Most High God rules in the kingdom of men, and appoints over it whomever He chooses.
22 “But you his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, although you knew all this. 23 And you have lifted yourself up against the Lord of heaven. They have brought the vessels of His house before you, and you and your lords, your wives and your concubines, have drunk wine from them. And you have praised the gods of silver and gold, bronze and iron, wood and stone, which do not see or hear or know; and the God who holds your breath in His hand and owns all your ways, you have not glorified.
The king offered Daniel a position in his kingdom, but Daniel "is aware all the time that the promise is anyway an empty one, for by the morrow there will be no kingdom.” (Pett’s Commetary) When Daniel received gifts and honor from Nebuchadnezzar: "He was then young, and the captivity was to be long, and he by his place could be helpful to his poor brethren; but now the time of the captivity was near expired, and Babylon in distress by invasion and siege, and that night king, city, and kingdom lost…”(Poole’s Annotations)
Daniel did not give superficial flattery.”The absence in Daniel's address of the customary greeting 'O king live forever!' is noteworthy, disclosing his antagonistic attitude. His words here contrast with the way he related to the other kings that are mentioned in this book." (Stefanovic)
Then Daniel repeats the history of God’s dealings with Nebuchadnezzar. This particular history is part of the Torah of Israel. He says in verse 22 that this wicked king knew all of this. “And so shows that he does not sin from ignorance but from malice.” (Geneva Study Bible) "This the prophet repeats, to put Belshazzar in mind how God dealt with his father; for it is good for kings to read over the story of their ancestors, and take warning, and take example. In the first they are seamarks, in the second landmarks.” (Poole) “See here the necessary and profitable use of history, which hath its name, saith Plato, παρα το ισταναι τον ρουν, from stopping the flux and overflow of impiety in others.’” (Trapp) But Belshazzar did not humbled his heart, “although you knew all this.” (22) And he desecrated the temple vessels and worshipped other gods. He had not learned the moral lesson from Torah nor rightly applied it to his own life, as we ought also to do. “He was therefore doubly guilty in the sight of God…” (Ellicott’s Commentary
24 Then the fingers of the hand were sent from Him, and this writing was written. 25 “And this is the inscription that was written:
MENE, [Literally a mina (50 shekels) from the verb “to number”]
MENE, TEKEL, [Literally a shekel from the verb “to weigh”]
UPHARSIN. [Literally and half-shekels from the verb “to divide”]
26 This is the interpretation of each word. MENE: God has numbered your kingdom, and finished it; 27 TEKEL: You have been weighed in the balances, and found wanting; 28 PERES: Your kingdom has been divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.” 29 Then Belshazzar gave the command, and they clothed Daniel with purple and put a chain of gold around his neck, and made a proclamation concerning him that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom.
30 That very night Belshazzar, king of the Chaldeans, was slain. 31 And Darius the Mede received the kingdom, being about sixty-two years old.
“Why couldn’t the other wise men have read something so straightforward? It is recorded in Aramaic in Daniel’s book, so presumably it was written on the wall in Aramaic. Aramaic was the language of the Babylonian court and populace, so why would it have been such a puzzle?
We don’t really know for sure, but here is one theory: Aramaic was written right to left with the same letters that ancient Hebrew was. It was a written language without vowels and no space between words. Context, therefore, had a lot to do with understanding what written words meant. If there had been a long passage, it would have been easier to figure it out, but here was only a string of letters, the rough equivalent of ‘MNMNTKLPHRSN’ in Roman characters. This combination of consonants could have meant a number of things.
Further to this, for those who knew their Aramaic, as even Belshazzar did, even if they did get the right words, the actual phrase written was more or less nonsense. Basically it said, ‘Numbered, numbered, weighed, divided.’ It sounded more like rough notes scribbled by some merchant on the margin of his accounts than anything of great significance.
The challenge facing Daniel was to find out not only what the words were, but also give them meaning. While others could have read the words, only God, as the author, could have revealed their meaning.
‘MENE: God has numbered your kingdom, and finished it; TEKEL: You have been weighed in the balances, and found wanting; PERES: Your kingdom has been divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.’
Mene repeated twice meant numbered and finished numbering it. Tekel meant weighed, and in a clever change of vowel sounds also means found to be too light. Upharsin meant it was now divided or split.
This time as Daniel interprets the writing, he reads the last word in the singular tense of the verb, thus rendering upharsin as peres. By switching in a few alternate vowels between the Aramaic consonants, it now spelled “Persians.” Daniel was telling Belshazzar that God had taken his realm from him and given it to the Persians.
As he had promised, Belshazzar went ahead and clothed Daniel in the royal purple and draped the gold chain around his neck and proclaimed him third ruler in the king-dom. Whether he believed Daniel or not, we don’t know. But we do know that he soon discovered the truth. That very night the Persians entered Babylon ... and Belshazzar was slain.
According to the Greek historians Herodotus and Xenophon, the Persians diverted the water from the Euphrates that flowed through the city, and they then entered the city under the walls along the riverbed.” http://www.countdown.org/en/books/daniel-prophet/handwriting-on-the-wall/