Jeremiah 50:27

50:27 Kill all her soldiers! ¹ 

Let them be slaughtered! ² 

They are doomed, ³  for their day of reckoning ⁴  has come,

the time for them to be punished.”

Jeremiah 50:30

50:30 So her young men will fall in her city squares.

All her soldiers will be destroyed at that time,”

says the Lord. ⁵ 

Jeremiah 51:39

51:39 When their appetites are all stirred up, ⁶ 

I will set out a banquet for them.

I will make them drunk

so that they will pass out, ⁷ 

they will fall asleep forever,

they will never wake up,” ⁸ 

says the Lord. ⁹ 

Jeremiah 51:57

51:57 “I will make her officials and wise men drunk,

along with her governors, leaders, ¹⁰  and warriors.

They will fall asleep forever and never wake up,” ¹¹ 

says the King whose name is the Lord who rules over all. ¹² 

Isaiah 41:25

41:25 I have stirred up one out of the north ¹³  and he advances,

one from the eastern horizon who prays in my name. ¹⁴ 

He steps on ¹⁵  rulers as if they were clay,

like a potter treading the clay.

Daniel 5:1-2

Belshazzar Sees Mysterious Handwriting on a Wall

5:1 King Belshazzar ¹⁶  prepared a great banquet ¹⁷  for a thousand of his nobles, and he was drinking wine in front of ¹⁸  them all. ¹⁹  5:2 While under the influence ²⁰  of the wine, Belshazzar issued an order to bring in the gold and silver vessels – the ones that Nebuchadnezzar his father ²¹  had confiscated ²²  from the temple in Jerusalem ²³  – so that the king and his nobles, together with his wives and his concubines, could drink from them. ²⁴ 

Daniel 5:30

5:30 And in that very night Belshazzar, the Babylonian king, ²⁵  was killed. ²⁶ 

[50:27]  ¹ tn Heb “Kill all her young bulls.” Commentators are almost universally agreed that the reference to “young bulls” is figurative here for the princes and warriors (cf. BDB 831 s.v. פַּר 2.f, which compares Isa 34:7 and Ezek 39:18). This is virtually certain because of the reference to the time coming for them to be punished; this would scarcely fit literal bulls. For the verb rendered “kill” here see the translator’s note on v. 21.

[50:27]  ² tn Heb “Let them go down to the slaughter.”

[50:27]  ³ tn Or “How terrible it will be for them”; Heb “Woe to them.” See the study note on 22:13 and compare the usage in 23:1; 48:1.

[50:27]  ⁴ tn The words “of reckoning” are not in the text but are implicit from the context. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[50:30]  ⁵ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[51:39]  ⁶ tn Heb “When they are hot.”

[51:39]  ⁷ tc The translation follows the suggestion of KBL 707 s.v. עָלַז and a number of modern commentaries (e.g., Bright, J. A. Thompson, and W. L. Holladay) in reading יְעֻלְּפוּ (ye’ullÿfu) for יַעֲלֹזוּ (ya’alozu) in the sense of “swoon away” or “grow faint” (see KBL 710 s.v. עָלַף Pual). That appears to be the verb that the LXX (the Greek version) was reading when they translated καρωθῶσιν (karwqwsin, “they will be stupefied”). For parallel usage KBL cites Isa 51:20. This fits the context much better than “they will exult” in the Hebrew text.

[51:39]  ⁸ sn The central figure here is the figure of the cup of the Lord’s wrath (cf. 25:15-29, especially v. 26). Here the Babylonians have been made to drink so deeply of it that they fall into a drunken sleep from which they will never wake up (i.e., they die, death being compared to sleep [cf. Ps 13:3 (13:4 HT); 76:5 (76:6 HT); 90:5]). Compare the usage in Jer 51:57 for this same figure.

[51:39]  ⁹ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[51:57]  ¹⁰ sn For discussion of the terms “governors” and “leaders” see the note at Jer 51:23.

[51:57]  ¹¹ sn See the note at Jer 51:39.

[51:57]  ¹² tn For the title “Yahweh of armies” see the study note on Jer 2:19.

[41:25]  ¹³ sn That is, Cyrus the Persian. See the note at v. 2.

[41:25]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “[one] from the rising of the sun [who] calls in my name.”

[41:25]  ¹⁵ tn The Hebrew text has וְיָבֹא (vÿyavo’, “and he comes”), but this is likely a corruption of an original וַיָּבָס (vayyavas), from בּוּס (bus, “step on”).

[5:1]  ¹⁶ 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]  ¹⁷ 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]  ¹⁸ sn The king probably sat at an elevated head table.

[5:1]  ¹⁹ tn Aram “the thousand.”

[5:2]  ²⁰ 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]  ²¹ 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]  ²² tn Or “taken.”

[5:2]  ²³ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[5:2]  ²⁴ 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.

[5:30]  ²⁵ tn Aram “king of the Chaldeans.”

[5:30]  ²⁶ 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.