Daniel 5:1

CHAPTER V

In the commencement of this chapter we are informed how

Belshazzar, the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar, when rioting in his

palace, and profaning the severed vessels of the temple, 1-4,

was suddenly terrified with the appearance of the fingers of a

man's hand, which wrote a few words on the wall before him,

5, 6.

The wise men and astrologers were immediately called in to show

the king the interpretation; but they could not so much as read

the writing, because (as Houbigant and others have conjectured)

though the words are in the Chaldee tongue, yet they were

written in the Samaritan or ancient Hebrew characters, with

which the wise men of Babylon were very probably unacquainted,

as the Jews were at that time a despised people, and the

knowledge of their language not a fashionable attainment, 7-9.

Daniel, who had been so highly esteemed by Nebuchadnezzar for

his superior wisdom, appears to have been altogether unknown to

Belshazzar, till the queen (the same who had been the wife of

Nebuchadnezzar according to the general opinion, or the queen

consort according to others) had informed him, 10-12.

Upon the queen's recommendation, Daniel is called in, 13-16;

who boldly tells this despotic king, that as he had not

benefited by the judgments inflicted on his grandfather, but

gave himself up to pride and profanity, and had added to his

other sins an utter contempt for the God of the Jews by

drinking wine out of the sacred vessels of Jehovah in honour of

his idols, 17-23;

the Supreme Being, the Ruler of heaven and earth, had written

his condemnation in three words, MENE, TEKEL, PERES, 24, 25;

the first of which is repeated in the copies containing the

Chaldean original; but all the ancient Versions, except the

Syriac, are without this repetition. Daniel then gives the king

and his lords the fearful import of the writing, viz., that the

period allotted for the duration of the Chaldean empire was now

completed, (see Jeremiah 25:12,)

and that the kingdom was about to be transferred to the Medes

and Persians, 26-28.

However unwelcome such an interpretation must have been to

Belshazzar, yet the monarch, overwhelmed with its clearness and

certainty, commanded the prophet to be honoured, 29.

And that very night the prediction was fulfilled, for the king

was slain, 30,

and the city taken by the Medes and Persians, 31.

This great event was also predicted by Isaiah and Jeremiah; and

the manner in which it was accomplished is recorded by

Herodotus and Xenophon.

NOTES ON CHAP. V.

Verse Daniel 5:1. Belshazzar the king made a great feast] This chapter is out of its place, and should come in after the seventh and eighth. There are difficulties in the chronology. After the death of Nebuchadnezzar, Evil-merodach his son ascended the throne of Babylon. Having reigned about two years, he was slain by his brother-in-law, Neriglissar. He reigned four years, and was succeeded by his son Laborosoarchod, who reigned only nine months. At his death Belshazzar the son of Evil-merodach, was raised to the throne, and reigned seventeen years, and was slain, as we read here, by Cyrus, who surprised and took the city on the night of this festivity. This is the chronology on which Archbishop Usher, and other learned chronologists, agree; but the Scripture mentions only Nebuchadnezzar, Evil-merodach, and Belshazzar, by name; and Jeremiah, Jeremiah 27:7, expressly says, "All nations shall serve him (Nebuchadnezzar,) and his son (Evil-merodach,) and his son's son (Belshazzar,) until the very time of his land come;" i.e., till the time in which the empire should be seized by Cyrus. Here there is no mention of Neriglissar nor Laborosoarchod; but as they were usurpers, they might have been purposely passed by. But there remains one difficulty still: Belshazzar is expressly called the son of Nebuchadnezzar by the queen mother, Daniel 5:11: "There is a man in thy kingdom, in whom is the spirit of the holy gods: and in the days of THY FATHER light and understanding and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods, was found in him: whom the king NEBUCHADNEZZAR THY FATHER, the king, I say, thy father, made master of the magicians." The solution of this difficulty is, that in Scripture the name of son is indifferently given to sons and grandsons, and even to great grandsons. And perhaps the repetition in the above verse may imply this: "The king, Nebuchadnezzar thy father, the king thy father." The king thy father's father, and consequently thy grandfather. If it have not some such meaning as this, it must be considered an idle repetition. As to the two other kings, Neriglissar and Laborosoarchod, mentioned by Josephus and Berosus, and by whom the chronology is so much puzzled, they might have been some petty kings, or viceroys, or satraps, who affected the kingdom, and produced disturbances, one for four years, and the other for nine months; and would in consequence not be acknowledged in the Babylonish chronology, nor by the sacred writers, any more than finally unsuccessful rebels are numbered among the kings of those nations which they have disturbed. I believe the only sovereigns we can acknowledge here are the following:

1. Nabopolassar;

2. Nebuchadnezzar;

3. Evil-merodach;

4. Belshazzar; and with this last the Chaldean empire ended.

To a thousand of his lords] Perhaps this means lords or satraps, that were each over one thousand men. But we learn from antiquity that the Persian kings were very profuse in their entertainments; but it does not follow that the Chaldeans were so too. Besides, one thousand lords and their appropriate attendants would have been very inconvenient in a nocturnal assembly. The text, however, supports the common translation. Literally, "Belshazzar the king made bread for his lords a thousand; and against the thousand he drank wine." That is, say some, he was a very great drinker.