Daniel 5:28

5:28 As for peres ¹  – your kingdom is divided and given over to the Medes and Persians.”

Daniel 5:1

Belshazzar Sees Mysterious Handwriting on a Wall

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

Daniel 1:14

1:14 So the warden ⁶  agreed to their proposal ⁷  and tested them for ten ⁸  days.

Daniel 1:1

Daniel Finds Favor in Babylon

1:1 In the third ⁹  year of the reign of King Jehoiakim of Judah, King Nebuchadnezzar ¹⁰  of Babylon advanced against Jerusalem ¹¹  and laid it under siege. ¹² 

¹ sn Peres (פְּרֵס) is the singular form of פַרְסִין (pharsin) in v. 25.

² 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.

³ 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.

⁴ sn The king probably sat at an elevated head table.

⁵ tn Aram “the thousand.”

⁶ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the warden mentioned in v. 11) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁷ tn Heb “listened to them with regard to this matter.”

⁸ sn The number ten is sometimes used in the OT as an ideal number of completeness. Cf. v. 20; Zech 8:23; Rev 2:10.

⁹ sn The third year of the reign of Jehoiakim would be ca. 605 B.C. At this time Daniel would have been a teenager. The reference to Jehoiakim’s third year poses a serious crux interpretum, since elsewhere these events are linked to his fourth year (Jer 25:1; cf. 2 Kgs 24:1; 2 Chr 36:5-8). Apparently Daniel is following an accession year chronology, whereby the first partial year of a king’s reign was reckoned as the accession year rather than as the first year of his reign. Jeremiah, on the other hand, is following a nonaccession year chronology, whereby the accession year is reckoned as the first year of the king’s reign. In that case, the conflict is only superficial. Most modern scholars, however, have concluded that Daniel is historically inaccurate here.

¹⁰ sn King Nebuchadnezzar ruled Babylon from ca. 605-562 B.C.

¹¹ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

¹² sn This attack culminated in the first of three major deportations of Jews to Babylon. The second one occurred in 597 B.C. and included among many other Jewish captives the prophet Ezekiel. The third deportation occurred in 586 B.C., at which time the temple and the city of Jerusalem were thoroughly destroyed.