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Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents
5:1-31 Belshazzar's Feast. Daniel explains to the last king of Babylon that the writing on the wall is a message that the true God rules over all, and that in his own time he will vindicate his own name against those who defile it, no matter how powerful they are.
5:1-4 An Idolatrous Feast. Greek historians recorded many lavish feasts in Babylon. At the center of Belshazzar's great feast (v. 1) in were the vessels of gold and of silver (v. 2) that had been taken from the Jerusalem temple by Nebuchadnezzar (cf. 1:2). Nebuchadnezzar was not literally the father of Belshazzar (5:2); Belshazzar was the son of Nabonidus, with whom he shared co-regency during the closing years of the Babylonian monarchy. The word "father" in Aramaic, like Hebrew, can mean "ancestor" or "predecessor" (v. 2, ESV footnote), but Belshazzar wanted to emphasize his direct connection to this important ruler who had taken Babylon to its peak.
5:5-9 An Unreadable Message. The fingers of a mysterious hand wrote on the plaster of the palace wall opposite the lampstand, where its message could be clearly seen, though not easily understood (v. 5). The king's response was abject terror: literally, the "joints of his loins were loosened," indicating that he lost strength in his hips and legs (v. 6). None of the Babylonian diviners were able to interpret the writing, in spite of the generous reward offered by Belshazzar. Anyone who interpreted the writing would be clothed with purple, a fabulously expensive color in the ancient world, and would wear a chain of gold, a mark of high rank (v. 7). He would also be the third ruler in the kingdom (v. 7), which may refer to being next highest to King Nabonidus and the co-regent Belshazzar, or may be a more general term for a high official.
5:10-12 A Forgotten Interpreter. The queen most likely refers to the queen mother (v. 10, ESV footnote), since the wives of the king were already present (v. 2). She reminded Belshazzar of the existence of Daniel, whose ability to interpret knotty problems had been repeatedly demonstrated during the time of his illustrious predecessor, Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar had appointed him chief of his wise men, because the spirit of the holy gods (or "God"; the Aramaic is ambiguous) indwelt him (v. 11), enabling him to answer difficult questions.
5:12 Daniel's Babylonian name, Belteshazzar, probably means "O Lady [wife of the god Bel], protect the king!" It is similar to Belshazzar, which means, "O Bel, protect the king!"
5:13-31 A Message of Judgment. Daniel alone is able to decipher the writing on the wall, and he shows that it is a message from the true God, telling of the end of the Babylonian Empire.
5:13-16 Belshazzar addresses him not as the Daniel whom his father made chief of his wise men, but as the Daniel whom his father brought as one of the exiles from Judah. But he does pay Daniel a significant compliment, recognizing that he has heard that Daniel has special insight and can reveal difficult problems.
5:17 Daniel's blunt response omitted the usual deferential politeness of the Babylonian court.
5:18 Daniel contrasted Belshazzar with Nebuchadnezzar, to whom the Most High God gave . . . kingship and greatness and glory and majesty. Nebuchadnezzar was given godlike powers to kill and keep alive, to raise up and to humble. Yet when he became proud, God humbled him comprehensively until he confessed the power of God (see ch. 4).
5:23 Belshazzar knew of Nebuchadnezzar's humbling, yet far from humbling himself, he lifted himself up . . . against the Lord of heaven by using the sacred vessels from the Jerusalem temple for an idolatrous feast.
5:25 Daniel read and interpreted the writing . . . Mene, Mene, Tekel, and Parsin. The words are clearly Aramaic and form a sequence of weights, decreasing from a mina, to a shekel (
5:28 As a result, Belshazzar's kingdom would be divided and given to the Medes and the Persians ("
5:30-31 Belshazzar gave Daniel the promised reward (v. 29), but it was an empty gift because that very night Belshazzar's rule ended, when the Medes and the Persians entered Babylon. Belshazzar was killed and replaced as king by Darius the Mede. Belshazzar's feast is exposed as the ultimate act of folly: he was feasting on the brink of the grave and either did not know the danger or refused to acknowledge it. The identity of Darius the Mede and the exact nature of his relationship to Cyrus is not certain. It is clear that Cyrus was already king of Persia at the time when Babylon fell to the Persians (), and thus far no reference to "Darius the Mede" has been found in the contemporary documents that have survived. That absence, however, does not prove that the references to Darius in the book of Daniel are a historical anachronism. The book of Daniel recognizes that Cyrus reigned shortly after the fall of Babylon (1:1; 6:28), and knowledge of the history of this period, while substantial, may be incomplete. Until fairly recently there was no cuneiform evidence to prove the existence of Belshazzar either. Some commentators argue that Darius was a Babylonian throne name adopted by Cyrus himself. On this view, 6:28 should be understood as, "during the reign of Darius the Mede, that is, the reign of Cyrus the Persian." Others suggest that Darius was actually Cyrus's general, elsewhere named Gubaru or Ugbaru, and credited in the Nabonidus Chronicle with the capture of Babylon.
