Daniel 5:1-6

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  5:2 While under the influence ⁵  of the wine, Belshazzar issued an order to bring in the gold and silver vessels – the ones that Nebuchadnezzar his father ⁶  had confiscated ⁷  from the temple in Jerusalem ⁸  – so that the king and his nobles, together with his wives and his concubines, could drink from them. ⁹  5:3 So they brought the gold and silver ¹⁰  vessels that had been confiscated from the temple, the house of God ¹¹  in Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles, together with his wives and concubines, drank from them. 5:4 As they drank wine, they praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.

5:5 At that very moment the fingers of a human hand appeared ¹²  and wrote on the plaster of the royal palace wall, opposite the lampstand. ¹³  The king was watching the back ¹⁴  of the hand that was writing. 5:6 Then all the color drained from the king’s face ¹⁵  and he became alarmed. ¹⁶  The joints of his hips gave way, ¹⁷  and his knees began knocking together.

Daniel 5:25-30

5:25 “This is the writing that was inscribed: MENE, MENE, ¹⁸  TEQEL, and PHARSIN. ¹⁹  5:26 This is the interpretation of the words: ²⁰  As for mene ²¹  – 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 ²²  – your kingdom is divided and given over to the Medes and Persians.”

5:29 Then, on Belshazzar’s orders, ²³  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, ²⁴  was killed. ²⁵ 

[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.”

[5:2]  ⁵ 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”).

[5:2]  ⁶ tn Or “ancestor”; or “predecessor” (also in vv. 11, 13, 18). The Aramaic word translated “father” can on occasion denote these other relationships.

[5:2]  ⁷ tn Or “taken.”

[5:2]  ⁸ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[5:2]  ⁹ 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.

[5:3]  ¹⁰ 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.

[5:3]  ¹¹ 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.”

[5:5]  ¹² tn Aram “came forth.”

[5:5]  ¹³ sn The mention of the lampstand in this context is of interest because it suggests that the writing was in clear view.

[5:5]  ¹⁴ 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.

[5:6]  ¹⁵ tn Aram “[the king’s] brightness changed for him.”

[5:6]  ¹⁶ tn Aram “his thoughts were alarming him.”

[5:6]  ¹⁷ tn Aram “his loins went slack.”

[5:25]  ¹⁸ tc The Greek version of Theodotion lacks the repetition of מְנֵא (mÿne’, cf. NAB).

[5:25]  ¹⁹ tc The Aramaic word is plural. Theodotion has the singular (cf. NAB “PERES”).

[5:26]  ²⁰ tn Or “word” or “event.” See HALOT 1915 s.v. מִלָּה.

[5:26]  ²¹ 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.”

[5:28]  ²² sn Peres (פְּרֵס) is the singular form of פַרְסִין (pharsin) in v. 25.

[5:29]  ²³ tn Aram “Belshazzar spoke.”

[5:30]  ²⁴ tn Aram “king of the Chaldeans.”

[5:30]  ²⁵ 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.