Ezekiel 28:2

28:2 “Son of man, say to the prince ¹  of Tyre, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says:

“‘Your heart is proud ²  and you said, “I am a god; ³ 

I sit in the seat of gods, in the heart of the seas” –

yet you are a man and not a god,

though you think you are godlike. ⁴ 

Daniel 4:31-32

4:31 While these words were still on the king’s lips, ⁵  a voice came down from heaven: “It is hereby announced to you, ⁶  King Nebuchadnezzar, that your kingdom has been removed from you! 4:32 You will be driven from human society, and you will live with the wild animals. You will be fed grass like oxen, and seven periods of time will pass by for you before ⁷  you understand that the Most High is ruler over human kingdoms and gives them to whomever he wishes.”

Daniel 5:23-30

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 ⁸  that cannot see or hear or comprehend! But you have not glorified the God who has in his control ⁹  your very breath and all your ways! 5:24 Therefore the palm of a hand was sent from him, and this writing was inscribed.

5:25 “This is the writing that was inscribed: MENE, MENE, ¹⁰  TEQEL, and PHARSIN. ¹¹  5:26 This is the interpretation of the words: ¹²  As for mene ¹³  – God has numbered your kingdom’s days and brought it to an end. 5:27 As for teqel – you are weighed on the balances and found to be lacking. 5:28 As for peres ¹⁴  – your kingdom is divided and given over to the Medes and Persians.”

5:29 Then, on Belshazzar’s orders, ¹⁵  Daniel was clothed in purple, a golden collar was placed around his neck, and he was proclaimed third ruler in the kingdom. 5:30 And in that very night Belshazzar, the Babylonian king, ¹⁶  was killed. ¹⁷ 

Acts 12:22-23

12:22 But the crowd ¹⁸  began to shout, ¹⁹  “The voice of a god, ²⁰  and not of a man!” 12:23 Immediately an angel of the Lord ²¹  struck ²²  Herod ²³  down because he did not give the glory to God, and he was eaten by worms and died. ²⁴ 

¹ tn Or “ruler” (NIV, NCV).

² tn Heb “lifted up.”

³ tn Or “I am divine.”

⁴ tn Heb “and you made your heart (mind) like the heart (mind) of gods.”

⁵ tn Aram “in the mouth of the king.”

⁶ tn Aram “to you they say.”

⁷ tn Aram “until.”

⁸ tn Aram “which.”

⁹ tn Aram “in whose hand [are].”

¹⁰ tc The Greek version of Theodotion lacks the repetition of מְנֵא (mÿne’, cf. NAB).

¹¹ tc The Aramaic word is plural. Theodotion has the singular (cf. NAB “PERES”).

¹² tn Or “word” or “event.” See HALOT 1915 s.v. מִלָּה.

¹³ tn The Aramaic term מְנֵא (mÿne’) is a noun referring to a measure of weight. The linkage here to the verb “to number” (Aram. מְנָה, mÿnah) is a case of paronomasia rather than strict etymology. So also with תְּקֵל (tÿqel) and פַרְסִין (farsin). In the latter case there is an obvious wordplay with the name “Persian.”

¹⁴ sn Peres (פְּרֵס) is the singular form of פַרְסִין (pharsin) in v. 25.

¹⁵ tn Aram “Belshazzar spoke.”

¹⁶ tn Aram “king of the Chaldeans.”

¹⁷ sn The year was 539 B.C. At this time Daniel would have been approximately eighty-one years old. The relevant extra-biblical records describing the fall of Babylon include portions of Herodotus, Xenophon, Berossus (cited in Josephus), the Cyrus Cylinder, and the Babylonian Chronicle.

¹⁸ tn The translation “crowd” is given by BDAG 223 s.v. δῆμος; the word often means a gathering of citizens to conduct public business. Here it is simply the group of people gathered to hear the king’s speech.

¹⁹ tn The imperfect verb ἐπεφώνει (epefwnei) is taken ingressively in the sequence of events. Presumably the king had started his speech when the crowd began shouting.

²⁰ sn The voice of a god. Contrast the response of Paul and Barnabas in Acts 14:13-15.

²¹ tn Or “the angel of the Lord.” See the note on the word “Lord” in 5:19.

²² sn On being struck…down by an angel, see Acts 23:3; 1 Sam 25:28; 2 Sam 12:15; 2 Kgs 19:35; 2 Chr 13:20; 2 Macc 9:5.

²³ tn Grk “him”; the referent (Herod) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

²⁴ sn He was eaten by worms and died. Josephus, Ant. 19.8.2 (19.343-352), states that Herod Agrippa I died at Caesarea in a.d. 44. The account by Josephus, while not identical to Luke’s account, is similar in many respects: On the second day of a festival, Herod Agrippa appeared in the theater with a robe made of silver. When it sparkled in the sun, the people cried out flatteries and declared him to be a god. The king, carried away by the flattery, saw an owl (an omen of death) sitting on a nearby rope, and immediately was struck with severe stomach pains. He was carried off to his house and died five days later. The two accounts can be reconciled without difficulty, since while Luke states that Herod was immediately struck down by an angel, his death could have come several days later. The mention of worms with death adds a humiliating note to the scene. The formerly powerful ruler had been thoroughly reduced to nothing (cf. Jdt 16:17; 2 Macc 9:9; cf. also Josephus, Ant. 17.6.5 [17.168-170], which details the sickness which led to Herod the Great’s death).