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 5:5

5:5 At that very moment the fingers of a human hand appeared ⁵  and wrote on the plaster of the royal palace wall, opposite the lampstand. ⁶  The king was watching the back ⁷  of the hand that was writing.

Daniel 5:30

5:30 And in that very night Belshazzar, the Babylonian king, ⁸  was killed. ⁹ 

[5:1]  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.

[5:1]  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.

[5:1]  ³ sn The king probably sat at an elevated head table.

[5:1]  ⁴ tn Aram “the thousand.”

[5:5]  ⁵ tn Aram “came forth.”

[5:5]  ⁶ sn The mention of the lampstand in this context is of interest because it suggests that the writing was in clear view.

[5:5]  ⁷ tn While Aramaic פַּס (pas) can mean the palm of the hand, here it seems to be the back of the hand that is intended.

[5:30]  ⁸ tn Aram “king of the Chaldeans.”

[5:30]  ⁹ 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.