Daniel 5: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

King Belshazzar holds a great feast and has the gold vessels taken from the temple in Jerusalem brought in, so that he and his guests can drink from them while praising gods of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone. A hand appears and writes on the palace wall, and when the king's wise men cannot read it, the queen sends for Daniel. Daniel turns down the rewards, reminds Belshazzar how Nebuchadnezzar was brought low for his pride, and reads the writing as a message that Belshazzar's reign has been counted out, that Belshazzar himself has been weighed and found wanting, and that his kingdom is divided between the Medes and Persians. That same night Belshazzar is killed, and Darius the Mede takes over the kingdom.

Claim by Claim

1. 5:1
   • Belshazzar the king held a great feast for a thousand of his nobles.
   • Belshazzar drank wine in the presence of the thousand.
2. 5:2
   • While under the influence of the wine, Belshazzar gave the order to bring in the vessels of gold and silver.
   • Those vessels had been taken from the temple in Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, called his father.
   • The purpose was that the king, his nobles, his wives, and his concubines might drink from them.
3. 5:3
   • They brought in the gold vessels that had been taken from the temple, the house of God, in Jerusalem.
   • The king, his nobles, his wives, and his concubines drank from those vessels.
4. 5:4
   • They drank wine.
   • They praised the gods of gold, of silver, of bronze, of iron, of wood, and of stone.
5. 5:5
   • At that same moment the fingers of a human hand appeared.
   • The hand wrote on the plaster of the wall of the king's palace, opposite the lampstand.
   • The king saw the part of the hand that was writing.
6. 5:6
   • The king's face changed color.
   • His thoughts alarmed him.
   • The joints of his hips went slack.
   • His knees knocked against each other.
7. 5:7
   • The king called out loudly for the enchanters, the Chaldeans, and the diviners to be brought in.
   • The king said to the wise men of Babylon that whoever read the writing and told him its interpretation would be clothed in purple.
   • He said such a man would have a gold chain placed around his neck.
   • He said such a man would rule as third in the kingdom.
8. 5:8
   • All the king's wise men came in.
   • They could not read the writing.
   • They could not make known its interpretation to the king.
9. 5:9
   • King Belshazzar was greatly alarmed.
   • His face changed color.
   • His nobles were bewildered.
10. 5:10
    • Because of the words of the king and his nobles, the queen came into the banquet hall.
    • The queen said, O king, live forever.
    • The queen told the king not to let his thoughts alarm him.
    • The queen told the king not to let his face change color.
11. 5:11
    • The queen said there is a man in the king's kingdom in whom is the spirit of the holy gods.
    • She said that in the days of his father, illumination, insight, and wisdom like the wisdom of the gods were found in that man.
    • She said King Nebuchadnezzar, the king's father, appointed him chief of the magicians, enchanters, Chaldeans, and diviners.
    • She repeated that Nebuchadnezzar the king was the king's father.
12. 5:12
    • She said an extraordinary spirit, knowledge, and understanding were found in this Daniel.
    • She said the ability to interpret dreams, explain riddles, and untie knotted problems was found in him.
    • She said the king had named Daniel Belteshazzar.
    • She told the king to summon Daniel.
    • She said Daniel would declare the interpretation.
13. 5:13
    • Daniel was brought in before the king.
    • The king asked Daniel whether he was that Daniel of the exiles of Judah.
    • The king said his father the king had brought those exiles from Judah.
14. 5:14
    • The king said he had heard that the spirit of the gods was in Daniel.
    • The king said he had heard that illumination, insight, and extraordinary wisdom were found in Daniel.
15. 5:15
    • The king said the wise men and enchanters had been brought in before him to read the writing and make known its interpretation.
    • The king said they were unable to declare the interpretation of the matter.
16. 5:16
    • The king said he had heard that Daniel could give interpretations and untie knotted problems.
    • The king said that if Daniel could read the writing and make known its interpretation, Daniel would be clothed in purple.
    • The king said Daniel would have a gold chain around his neck.
    • The king said Daniel would rule as third in the kingdom.
17. 5:17
    • Daniel answered before the king.
    • Daniel told the king to keep his gifts for himself.
    • Daniel told the king to give his rewards to someone else.
    • Daniel said he would nevertheless read the writing for the king.
    • Daniel said he would make known the interpretation to the king.
18. 5:18
    • Daniel said the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar, the king's father, the kingdom, greatness, glory, and honor.
19. 5:19
    • Daniel said that because of the greatness God gave him, all peoples, nations, and languages trembled and feared before Nebuchadnezzar.
    • Daniel said Nebuchadnezzar killed whom he wished.
    • Daniel said he kept alive whom he wished.
    • Daniel said he raised up whom he wished.
    • Daniel said he brought low whom he wished.
20. 5:20
    • Daniel said that when Nebuchadnezzar's heart was lifted up and his spirit hardened in pride, he was deposed from his royal throne.
    • Daniel said his glory was taken from him.
21. 5:21
    • Daniel said Nebuchadnezzar was driven away from human beings.
    • Daniel said his mind was made like that of an animal.
    • Daniel said his dwelling was with the wild donkeys.
    • Daniel said he was fed grass like cattle.
    • Daniel said his body was drenched with the dew of heaven.
    • Daniel said this lasted until he acknowledged that the Most High God rules over the kingdom of men.
    • Daniel said he acknowledged that God appoints over it whomever He wishes.
22. 5:22
    • Daniel said Belshazzar is Nebuchadnezzar's son.
    • Daniel said Belshazzar had not humbled his heart.
    • Daniel said Belshazzar knew all this.
23. 5:23
    • Daniel said Belshazzar exalted himself against the Lord of heaven.
    • Daniel said the vessels of God's house were brought before Belshazzar.
    • Daniel said Belshazzar, his nobles, his wives, and his concubines drank wine from them.
    • Daniel said Belshazzar praised gods of silver, gold, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.
    • Daniel said those gods do not see, hear, or know.
    • Daniel said the God in whose hand is Belshazzar's breath, and to whom belong all his ways, Belshazzar had not honored.
24. 5:24
    • Daniel said that because of this, the part of the hand was sent from God.
    • Daniel said this writing was inscribed.
25. 5:25
    • Daniel said the writing that was inscribed reads: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.
26. 5:26
    • Daniel said this is the interpretation of the matter.
    • Daniel said MENE means God has numbered your kingdom.
    • Daniel said God has brought it to an end.
27. 5:27
    • Daniel said TEKEL means you have been weighed on the scales.
    • Daniel said you have been found deficient.
28. 5:28
    • Daniel said PERES means your kingdom has been divided.
    • Daniel said your kingdom has been given to the Medes and Persians.
29. 5:29
    • Belshazzar gave the command.
    • They clothed Daniel in purple.
    • They put a gold chain around Daniel's neck.
    • They proclaimed concerning Daniel that he should rule as third in the kingdom.
30. 5:30
    • That very night Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans was killed.
31. 5:31
    • Darius the Mede received the kingdom.
    • Darius was about sixty-two years old.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

5:1

Belshazzar ruled Babylon in its final years, in the 540s–539 BC. Babylonian records outside the Bible name him as the son of King Nabonidus, who left him governing the capital while he himself was away for years at a time, which is why Belshazzar can only offer the third place in the kingdom (verse 7) rather than the second.

5:2

"His father Nebuchadnezzar": in Aramaic and Hebrew the word for "father" also covers grandfather, more distant ancestor, or simply a royal predecessor, much as English can call someone the "father" of a line. Nebuchadnezzar had died decades earlier. The cups and bowls were the working equipment of the temple in Jerusalem, set apart for use in worship and for no other purpose. Nebuchadnezzar's army had carried them off when Babylon captured the city and destroyed the temple, around 587 BC. Concubines were women attached to the king's household as secondary wives, recognized and provided for but ranking below his wives, and their children ranked below the wives' children.

5:3

Kings back then had more than one wife. Other women lived in the palace too and belonged to the king. The King James Version calls them "concubines".

5:4

The list names materials, not gods. Babylonian worship centered on the statue itself, which was housed in a temple, washed, clothed, fed and carried in procession, so 'the gods of gold, and of silver' means the images standing in the hall and in the temples of the city.

5:5

The King James "candlestick" does not mean a candle-holder. It is the standing lamp of the palace, burning oil, the same word used for the seven-branched lamp of the Jerusalem temple. Palace walls were coated in white plaster, so writing on them would show plainly to a room full of guests. The excavated throne room at Babylon has exactly such a plastered wall facing the king's seat.

5:6

"The joints of his loins were loosed" is a physical idiom, not a medical description: the muscles of the hips and lower back give way, so that a man can no longer hold himself upright. It is the ancient way of saying terror took the strength out of him.

5:7

"The Chaldeans" here is not the nation but a profession, a guild of Babylonian scholars trained in omens, astronomy and divination. The same word means "Babylonians" in the ordinary ethnic sense in verse 30; the reader has to tell them apart by context. "Astrologers" and "soothsayers" are two more specialist classes of diviners; the exact techniques behind the words are no longer recoverable. The King James "scarlet" renders an Aramaic word for purple or reddish-purple cloth. The dye was extracted from shellfish in tiny quantities and was ruinously expensive, so the color marked the wearer as royal or near-royal. The gold chain was likewise an official badge of rank, not jewelry. "The third ruler in the kingdom" is the highest place Belshazzar has to give, since his father Nabonidus held first place and he himself held second.

5:9

"Astonied" is simply the older spelling of "astonished", and in 1611 it carried more force than it does now, stunned, at a loss, unable to act.

5:10

This is almost certainly the queen mother rather than one of the king's wives: the wives are already in the hall (verses 2–3), she enters uninvited and speaks to the king without ceremony, and she remembers Nebuchadnezzar's reign personally. The queen mother held a recognized position of her own at Near Eastern courts. "O king, live for ever" was the standard formula for opening a speech to a monarch, roughly equivalent to "Your Majesty", not a wish about this particular night.

5:11

"The spirit of the holy gods" is what a Babylonian speaker would naturally say. The Aramaic word for "god" here is plural in form, but such plurals can also be used of a single deity, so the phrase can be read either as "the holy gods" or as "the holy God"; the older translations differ, and the ambiguity is in the text itself. The magicians, astrologers, Chaldeans and soothsayers were the recognized professional classes of the royal court, employed to read omens and advise the king. Daniel was appointed their chief in chapter 2.

5:12

Belteshazzar is Daniel's Babylonian court name, given to him when he was taken into royal service (chapter 1). It resembles the king's own name, Belshazzar, but the two are different names; the similarity is coincidence of sound, not family connection. "Dissolving of doubts" translates an idiom meaning literally "untying knots", unravelling problems that have everyone else stuck.

5:13

"The children of the captivity of Judah" means the deportees: when Babylon conquered the kingdom of Judah it carried much of the population, especially its educated and governing classes, to Babylon. Daniel was among them. "Jewry" is the King James word for Judah or Judea, the territory itself.

5:17

Court scholars were paid for interpretations, and the fee was normally agreed before the work. Refusing the payment in advance was a pointed move: it separated what Daniel was about to say from anything the king could buy.

5:18

'The most high God' translates a title meaning the highest God. In these stories it is the phrase outsiders and foreign kings use for Israel's God, a way of naming him that a polytheist could say without abandoning his own gods.

5:19

"All people, nations, and languages" is a stock imperial phrase for the whole population of an empire made up of many conquered peoples. It appears repeatedly in Daniel as the formal way of saying "everyone under the king's rule".

5:21

This refers back to the events of chapter 4, where Nebuchadnezzar lost his reason and lived in the open like an animal for a period before recovering it. Daniel is reminding Belshazzar of a story the court would have known.

5:23

"The vessels of his house" are the temple cups and bowls of verses 2–3. In the thinking of the time, taking a defeated nation's sacred objects into your own temple treasury was a normal act of conquest; putting them to ordinary table use at a drinking party was a different and deliberate insult.

5:25

The four words are Aramaic, and part of the puzzle is that they are all names of weights used as money: MENE is the mina, TEKEL is the shekel (about one sixtieth of a mina), and PARSIN is the plural of PERES, a half-unit. So on the surface the writing reads like an accountant's tally ("a mina, a mina, a shekel, and half-pieces") which explains why the wise men could recognize the letters and still make nothing of them. The King James "UPHARSIN" keeps the Aramaic word intact including its first letter u-, which simply means "and"; the word itself is PARSIN. Verse 28 then quotes it in the singular as PERES. Daniel's reading takes each word instead as a verb from the same root: counted, weighed, divided.

5:26

MENE, the mina, sounds like the verb "to count" or "number". The wordplay works in Aramaic and cannot be carried into English.

5:27

TEKEL, the shekel, sounds like the verb "to weigh". Weighing on scales was the ordinary way of checking that a coin or a lump of silver was honest; "found wanting" means the pan came up light, short of the weight it was supposed to be.

5:28

PERES carries a triple play in Aramaic: the half-mina weight, the verb "to divide or break in two", and the name Paras, meaning Persia. All three senses are active at once. The Medes and Persians were the allied peoples east of Babylon; their combined forces under Cyrus took the city in 539 BC.

5:29

Belshazzar pays out the full reward even though the message was that his reign is over. Announcing it publicly made the appointment legally real, which is the last recorded official act of the Babylonian empire.

5:30

"Chaldeans" here is the ethnic and political term for the Babylonians, a different use of the word from the guild of diviners in verse 7. Babylon fell to the army of Cyrus the Persian in October 539 BC.

5:31

Darius the Mede is named only in the book of Daniel; no ruler of that name and description appears in the Babylonian or Persian records that survive, and proposals identifying him with a known figure (a general of Cyrus, a governor, or Cyrus himself under another title) remain disputed. The text is left as it stands. In the King James, "threescore" is sixty (a score is twenty), so "threescore and two" is sixty-two.