Psalms 50:22

50:22 Carefully consider this, you who reject God! ¹ 

Otherwise I will rip you to shreds ² 

and no one will be able to rescue you.

Jeremiah 51:39-42

51:39 When their appetites are all stirred up, ³ 

I will set out a banquet for them.

I will make them drunk

so that they will pass out, ⁴ 

they will fall asleep forever,

they will never wake up,” ⁵ 

says the Lord. ⁶ 

51:40 “I will lead them off to be slaughtered

like lambs, rams, and male goats.” ⁷ 

51:41 “See how Babylon ⁸  has been captured!

See how the pride of the whole earth has been taken!

See what an object of horror

Babylon has become among the nations! ⁹ 

51:42 The sea has swept over Babylon.

She has been covered by a multitude ¹⁰  of its waves. ¹¹ 

Daniel 5:25-30

5:25 “This is the writing that was inscribed: MENE, MENE, ¹²  TEQEL, and PHARSIN. ¹³  5:26 This is the interpretation of the words: ¹⁴  As for mene ¹⁵  – 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 ¹⁶  – your kingdom is divided and given over to the Medes and Persians.”

5:29 Then, on Belshazzar’s orders, ¹⁷  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, ¹⁸  was killed. ¹⁹ 

Daniel 5:1

Belshazzar Sees Mysterious Handwriting on a Wall

5:1 King Belshazzar ²⁰  prepared a great banquet ²¹  for a thousand of his nobles, and he was drinking wine in front of ²²  them all. ²³ 

Daniel 5:3

5:3 So they brought the gold and silver ²⁴  vessels that had been confiscated from the temple, the house of God ²⁵  in Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles, together with his wives and concubines, drank from them.

Revelation 18:9-10

18:9 Then ²⁶  the kings of the earth who committed immoral acts with her and lived in sensual luxury ²⁷  with her will weep and wail for her when they see the smoke from the fire that burns her up. ²⁸  18:10 They will stand a long way off because they are afraid of her torment, and will say,

“Woe, woe, O great city,

Babylon the powerful city!

For in a single hour your doom ²⁹  has come!”

[50:22]  ¹ tn Heb “[you who] forget God.” “Forgetting God” here means forgetting about his commandments and not respecting his moral authority.

[50:22]  ² sn Elsewhere in the psalms this verb is used (within a metaphorical framework) of a lion tearing its prey (see Pss 7:2; 17:12; 22:13).

[51:39]  ³ tn Heb “When they are hot.”

[51:39]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[51:40]  ⁷ tn Heb “I will bring them down like lambs to be slaughtered, like rams and he goats.”

[51:41]  ⁸ sn Heb “Sheshach.” For an explanation of the usage of this name for Babylon see the study note on Jer 25:26 and that on 51:1 for a similar phenomenon. Babylon is here called “the pride of the whole earth” because it was renowned for its size, its fortifications, and its beautiful buildings.

[51:41]  ⁹ tn Heb “How Sheshach has been captured, the pride of the whole earth has been seized! How Babylon has become an object of horror among the nations!” For the usage of “How” here see the translator’s note on 50:23.

[51:42]  ¹⁰ tn For the meaning “multitude” here rather than “tumult” see BDB 242 s.v. הָמוֹן 3.c, where reference is made that this refers to a great throng of people under the figure of an overwhelming mass of waves. The word is used of a multitude of soldiers, or a vast army in 1 Sam 14:16; 1 Kgs 20:13, 18 (cf. BDB 242 s.v. הָמוֹן 3.a for further references).

[51:42]  ¹¹ tn Heb “The sea has risen up over Babylon. She has been covered by the multitude of its waves.”

[5:25]  ¹² tc The Greek version of Theodotion lacks the repetition of מְנֵא (mÿne’, cf. NAB).

[5:25]  ¹³ tc The Aramaic word is plural. Theodotion has the singular (cf. NAB “PERES”).

[5:26]  ¹⁴ tn Or “word” or “event.” See HALOT 1915 s.v. מִלָּה.

[5:26]  ¹⁵ 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]  ¹⁶ sn Peres (פְּרֵס) is the singular form of פַרְסִין (pharsin) in v. 25.

[5:29]  ¹⁷ tn Aram “Belshazzar spoke.”

[5:30]  ¹⁸ tn Aram “king of the Chaldeans.”

[5:30]  ¹⁹ 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.

[5:1]  ²⁰ 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]  ²¹ 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]  ²² sn The king probably sat at an elevated head table.

[5:1]  ²³ tn Aram “the thousand.”

[5:3]  ²⁴ 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]  ²⁵ 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.”

[18:9]  ²⁶ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the vision.

[18:9]  ²⁷ tn On the term ἐστρηνίασεν (estrhniasen) BDAG 949 s.v. στρηνιάω states, “live in luxury, live sensually Rv 18:7. W. πορνεύειν vs. 9.”

[18:9]  ²⁸ tn Grk “from the burning of her.” For the translation “the smoke from the fire that burns her up,” see L&N 14.63.

[18:10]  ²⁹ tn Or “judgment,” condemnation,” “punishment.” BDAG 569 s.v. κρίσις 1.a.β states, “The word oft. means judgment that goes against a person, condemnation, and the sentence that follows…ἡ κ. σου your judgment Rv 18:10.”