The Book of Daniel, chapter 5 discusses a banquet held by King Belshazzar for the leading men of Babylon.
This paper will focus on an event at the banquet, the well known incident of a hand (without an arm or body) writing on the wall. The language of the writing was unknown, but Daniel was able to give the interpretation. The other parts of the story from Daniel 5, as well as the details of the prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah, are in another post titled, Belshazzar’s Banquet.
Below is a timeline of some important dates related to this paper.
Approximate Dates BC
711 Isaiah prophesied the defeat of Babylon (see the post Belshazzar’s Banquet)
605 – 562 Nebuchadnezzar -king in Babylon
605 Nebuchadnezzar conquers Jerusalem
605 Daniel exiled to Babylon -(See my article: Daniel Honors God for the story.)
586 Jeremiah prophesied against Babylon (see the post Belshazzar’s Banquet)
556 – 539 Nabonidus -king in Babylon (co-regency with Belshazzar)1
553 – 539 Belshazzar -king in Babylon
539 Belshazzar’s Banquet and the hand writing
539 Medes & Persians invade Babylon -led by Darius and Cyrus
The Hand, Writing on the Wall
Belshazzar the king was holding a great feast for some of the leading men of the city. They were drinking wine and praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone.
Daniel 5:5-9 tells us about the hand:
“Suddenly the fingers of a man’s hand emerged and began writing opposite the lampstand on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace, and the king saw the back of the hand that did the writing. Then the king’s face grew pale, and his thoughts alarmed him; and his hip joints went slack, and his knees began knocking together. The king called aloud to bring in the conjurers, the Chaldeans and the diviners. The king spoke and said to the wise men of Babylon, “Any man who can read this inscription and explain its interpretation to me will be clothed with purple, and have a necklace of gold around his neck, and have authority as third ruler in the kingdom.” Then all the king’s wise men came in, but they could not read the inscription or make known its interpretation to the king. Then King Belshazzar was greatly alarmed, his face grew even paler, and his nobles were perplexed.”
Isaiah’s Prophecy
As I mentioned before, I expound on Isaiah’s prophecy concerning Babylon in another post. However, there is detail that needs to be brought up. In Isaiah 45:1 as God is preparing to address Cyrus who invades Babylon, Isaiah writes,
“Thus says the LORD to Cyrus His anointed,
Whom I have taken by the right hand,
To subdue nations before him,
And to loose the loins of kings;
To open doors before him so that gates will not be shut.”
The next to last phrase Isaiah writes here is, ‘And to loose the loins of kings.’ The phrase is a figure of speech used in this context to mean that someone has lost their strength.2 Isaiah is predicting that God will cause the foes of Cyrus to lose their strength.
This is exactly what happened to Belshazzar! In the passage given previously from Daniel 5:5-9, Belshazzar was terrified when he saw the hand, writing on the wall. Daniel says of Belshazzar, “and his hip joints went slack, and his knees began knocking together.” God’s method of confronting Belshazzar made him so terrified that he lost his strength and vigor! (Isaiah’s prophecy was written 172 years before this event happened.)
The Message to Belshazzar
The wise men of Babylon could not figure out the message the hand wrote, so Daniel was called in to give the interpretation. (I write more about this in the post, Daniel’s Reputation.) Daniel 5:25-28 tells us the inscription and the meaning,
25 “Now this is the inscription that was written out: ‘MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.’ 26 This is the interpretation of the message: ‘MENE’—God has numbered your kingdom and put an end to it. 27 ‘TEKEL’—you have been weighed on the scales and found deficient. 28 ‘PERES’—your kingdom has been divided and given over to the Medes and Persians.”
The writing says: ‘MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.’ Daniel interpreted it, and in English it says, ‘Numbered, numbered, weighed and breakings.’
Bible commentator Alexander MacLaren points out,
“The variation in Daniel 5:28 {Peres} is the singular of the noun used in the plural in Daniel 5:25, with the omission of ‘U,’ which is merely the copulative ‘and.’3 The disjointed brevity adds to the force of the words. A play on the word ‘Peres’ suggests the Persian as the agent of the breaking. Daniel simply supplied the personal application of the oracular writing. He fits the cap on the king’s head.”4
Reason for the Message
After Daniel gives the interpretation of the writing to Belshazzar, he also explains why Belshazzar was given this message. Writing in Daniel 5:18-24, Daniel recounts that Belshazzar’s father Nebuchadnezzar was given great authority by God, such that all the nations feared and trembled before him. But Nebuchadnezzar became proud and arrogant, exalting himself instead of God (18-20). Therefore God took away his glory as king, and verse 21 says of Nebuchadnezzar,
“He was also driven away from mankind, and his heart was made like that of beasts, and his dwelling place was with the wild donkeys. He was given grass to eat like cattle, and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven, until he recognized that the Most High God is ruler over the realm of mankind, and that He sets over it whomever He wishes.”
Like his father, Belshazzar also needed to learn humility. In 22-23 Daniel continues,
“Yet you, his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, even though you knew all this, but you have exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of His house before you, and you have been drinking wine from them; and you have praised the gods [made by man] which do not see, hear or understand.”5
Daniel finishes in verses 23b & 24 with Belshazzar’s condemnation from God:
“But the God in whose hand are your life-breath and your ways, you have not glorified. Then the hand was sent from Him, and this inscription was written out.”
The Verdict
Belshazzar knew of his father’s episode of becoming like a beast and eating grass. Yet, he did not learn the lesson of his father Nebuchadnezzar, did not glorify God, but exalted himself. Belshazzar’s life was in God’s hand but he ignored God, so God sent a hand to write out the verdict. The play on words would be funny, except for the tragedy of the situation where Belshazzar rejected his maker.
“The very essence of all sin is that assertion of self as Lord, as sufficient, as the director of one’s path. To make myself my centre [sic], to depend on myself, to enthrone my own will as sovereign, is to fly in the face of nature and fact, and is the mother of all sin.”6
Daniel’s Tone
It is noteworthy that usually folks started their address to the king with such phrases as, “O king, live forever!” They were thus humbling themselves before the king who held the power of life or death. We see that Daniel, who may be in his 80’s by this time, did not greet the king this way. Daniel speaks straight with Belshazzar, just as he deserved. Daniel’s age had given him a perspective and boldness that a younger man would unlikely possess.
Various Bible commentators agree:
- “Such an insulting speech as Daniel addressed to Belshazzar would certainly be visited with punishment. [Pulpit Commentary]
- “He [Daniel] spoke to Belshazzar as to a condemned criminal.” [Matthew Henry]
- “Daniel was so harsh because Belshazzar should have known better. [Daniel] was not impressed with this successor of Nebuchadnezzar.” [David Guzik]
- “Daniel’s tone is noticeably stern. He has no reverential preface, no softening of his message. His words are as if cut with steel on the rock. He brushes aside the promises of vulgar decorations and honours [sic] with undisguised contempt, and goes straight to his work of rousing a torpid conscience.” [Alexander MacLaren]
Belshazzar’s Character
Greek historian Xenophon7 writes about Belshazzar and relates two events that describe his cruelty. Referring to Xenophon, Bible commentator A. R. Fausset says,
“The heathen Xenophon’s description of Belshazzar accords with Daniel’s; he calls him “impious,” and illustrates his cruelty by mentioning that he killed one of his nobles, merely because, in hunting, the noble struck down the game before him.”
The second event is that Belshazzar,
“unmanned a courtier, Gadates, at a banquet, because one of the king’s concubines praised him as handsome. Xenophon confirms Daniel as to Belshazzar’s end.”8
The Rewards
Daniel’s Reward
For Daniel, the reward was some trinkets and a short lived position of authority. Verse 29 tells us,
“Then Belshazzar gave orders, and they clothed Daniel with purple and put a necklace of gold around his neck, and issued a proclamation concerning him that he now had authority as the third ruler in the kingdom.”
Because Nabonidus and Belshazzar were co-regents, Nabonidus would be first ruler, Belshazzar number two, and Daniel as third ruler in the kingdom. Since the kingdom fell that night, Daniel’s position as third ruler was over rather quickly. Daniel was unharmed, and as he had done under Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel distinguished himself under Darius the Mede.
Belshazzar’s Reward
The reward for Belshazzar was that he would lose his kingdom. Verses 30-31 say,
“That same night Belshazzar the Chaldean king was slain. So Darius the Mede received the kingdom at about the age of sixty-two.”
Belshazzar was judged by God that night, not taking the opportunity to humble himself before God and repent. His kingdom was taken over by the invading Medes and Persians. (I expound on this in my article, Belshazzar’s Sacrilege.)
Conclusion
We have seen in this paper an example of God acting to judge someone for their behavior. Daniel points out that Belshazzar failed to learn the lesson of Nebuchadnezzar, his father, and exalted himself instead of God. God had given him time to repent, but he refused to do so. In fact, Belshazzar makes things worse by desecrating the holy vessels of God’s temple by drinking wine with them. When finally confronted by God, Belshazzar was terrified by the hand, writing on the wall.9
1 See my post, Authenticity of the book of Daniel for more explanation of Nabonidus’ co-regency.
2 International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia [sic] on Loins: The Hebrew words translated ‘loins’ here represent the seat of strength and vigor. 3/16/23
3 Copulative: joining together coordinate words or word groups and expressing addition of their meanings -a copulative conjunction. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/copulative 3/15/23
4 MacLaren’s Expositions on Daniel
5 Edited for brevity.
6 MacLaren
7 Xenophon, (lived c. 430 – 350 BCE, Attica, Greece), Greek historian and philosopher
8 Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary on Daniel
9 The statement that someone can see the ‘handwriting on the wall,’ is still with us today. It means that one has an idea of what is about to happen. Merriam-Webster gives the definition: Writing on the wall – an omen or sign of one’s unpleasant fate. Example: “No one told him he was going to be fired, but he could see the writing on the wall.” [=he could see that he was going to be fired soon]
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/writing%20on%20the%20wall 3/14/23