Daniel 5:1

Belshazzar Sees Mysterious Handwriting on a Wall

5:1 King Belshazzar ¹  prepared a great banquet ²  for a thousand of his nobles, and he was drinking wine in front of ³  them all. ⁴ 

Daniel 5:9

5:9 Then King Belshazzar was very terrified, and he was visibly shaken. ⁵  His nobles were completely dumbfounded.

Daniel 6:17

6:17 Then a stone was brought and placed over the opening ⁶  to the den. The king sealed ⁷  it with his signet ring and with those ⁸  of his nobles so that nothing could be changed with regard to Daniel.

Daniel 4:36

4:36 At that time my sanity returned to me. I was restored ⁹  to the honor of my kingdom, and my splendor returned to me. My ministers and my nobles were seeking me out, and I was reinstated ¹⁰  over my kingdom. I became even greater than before.

Daniel 5:2-3

5:2 While under the influence ¹¹  of the wine, Belshazzar issued an order to bring in the gold and silver vessels – the ones that Nebuchadnezzar his father ¹²  had confiscated ¹³  from the temple in Jerusalem ¹⁴  – so that the king and his nobles, together with his wives and his concubines, could drink from them. ¹⁵  5:3 So they brought the gold and silver ¹⁶  vessels that had been confiscated from the temple, the house of God ¹⁷  in Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles, together with his wives and concubines, drank from them.

Daniel 5:10

5:10 Due to the noise ¹⁸  caused by the king and his nobles, the queen mother ¹⁹  then entered the banquet room. She ²⁰  said, “O king, live forever! Don’t be alarmed! Don’t be shaken!

Daniel 5:23

5:23 Instead, you have exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven. You brought before you the vessels from his temple, and you and your nobles, together with your wives and concubines, drank wine from them. You praised the gods of silver, gold, bronze, iron, wood, and stone – gods ²¹  that cannot see or hear or comprehend! But you have not glorified the God who has in his control ²²  your very breath and all your ways!

¹ sn As is clear from the extra-biblical records, it was actually Nabonidus (ca. 556-539 B.C.) who was king of Babylon at this time. However, Nabonidus spent long periods of time at Teima, and during those times Belshazzar his son was de facto king of Babylon. This arrangement may help to explain why later in this chapter Belshazzar promises that the successful interpreter of the handwriting on the wall will be made third ruler in the kingdom. If Belshazzar was in effect second ruler in the kingdom, this would be the highest honor he could grant.

² sn This scene of a Babylonian banquet calls to mind a similar grandiose event recorded in Esth 1:3-8. Persian kings were also renowned in the ancient Near Eastern world for their lavish banquets.

³ sn The king probably sat at an elevated head table.

⁴ tn Aram “the thousand.”

⁵ tn Aram “his visage altered upon him.” So also in v. 10.

⁹ tn Aram “mouth.”

¹⁰ sn The purpose of the den being sealed was to prevent unauthorized tampering with the opening of the den. Any disturbance of the seal would immediately alert the officials to improper activity of this sort.

¹¹ tn Aram “the signet rings.”

¹³ tc The translation reads הַדְרֵת (hadret, “I returned”) rather than the MT הַדְרִי (hadri, “my honor”); cf. Theodotion.

¹⁴ tc The translation reads הָתְקְנֵת (hotqÿnet, “I was established”) rather than the MT הָתְקְנַת (hotqÿnat, “it was established”). As it stands, the MT makes no sense here.

¹⁷ tn Or perhaps, “when he had tasted” (cf. NASB) in the sense of officially initiating the commencement of the banquet. The translation above seems preferable, however, given the clear evidence of inebriation in the context (cf. also CEV “he got drunk and ordered”).

¹⁸ tn Or “ancestor”; or “predecessor” (also in vv. 11, 13, 18). The Aramaic word translated “father” can on occasion denote these other relationships.

¹⁹ tn Or “taken.”

²⁰ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

²¹ sn Making use of sacred temple vessels for an occasion of reveling and drunkenness such as this would have been a religious affront of shocking proportions to the Jewish captives.

²¹ tc The present translation reads וְכַסְפָּא (vÿkhaspa’, “and the silver”) with Theodotion and the Vulgate. Cf. v. 2. The form was probably accidentally dropped from the Aramaic text by homoioteleuton.

²² tn Aram “the temple of the house of God.” The phrase seems rather awkward. The Vulgate lacks “of the house of God,” while Theodotion and the Syriac lack “the house.”

²⁵ tn Aram “words of the king.”

²⁶ tn Aram “the queen” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV). In the following discourse this woman is able to recall things about Daniel that go back to the days of Nebuchadnezzar, things that Belshazzar does not seem to recollect. It is likely that she was the wife not of Belshazzar but of Nabonidus or perhaps even Nebuchadnezzar. In that case, “queen” here means “queen mother” (cf. NCV “the king’s mother”).

²⁷ tn Aram “The queen.” The translation has used the pronoun “she” instead because repetition of the noun here would be redundant in terms of English style.

²⁹ tn Aram “which.”

³⁰ tn Aram “in whose hand [are].”