Daniel 5:1-9

Belshazzar Sees Mysterious Handwriting on a Wall

5:1 King Belshazzar ¹  prepared a great banquet ²  for a thousand of his nobles, and he was drinking wine in front of ³  them all. ⁴  5:2 While under the influence ⁵  of the wine, Belshazzar issued an order to bring in the gold and silver vessels – the ones that Nebuchadnezzar his father ⁶  had confiscated ⁷  from the temple in Jerusalem ⁸  – so that the king and his nobles, together with his wives and his concubines, could drink from them. ⁹  5:3 So they brought the gold and silver ¹⁰  vessels that had been confiscated from the temple, the house of God ¹¹  in Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles, together with his wives and concubines, drank from them. 5:4 As they drank wine, they praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.

5:5 At that very moment the fingers of a human hand appeared ¹²  and wrote on the plaster of the royal palace wall, opposite the lampstand. ¹³  The king was watching the back ¹⁴  of the hand that was writing. 5:6 Then all the color drained from the king’s face ¹⁵  and he became alarmed. ¹⁶  The joints of his hips gave way, ¹⁷  and his knees began knocking together. 5:7 The king called out loudly ¹⁸  to summon ¹⁹  the astrologers, wise men, and diviners. The king proclaimed ²⁰  to the wise men of Babylon that anyone who could read this inscription and disclose its interpretation would be clothed in purple ²¹  and have a golden collar ²²  placed on his neck and be third ruler in the kingdom.

5:8 So all the king’s wise men came in, but they were unable to read the writing or to make known its ²³  interpretation to the king. 5:9 Then King Belshazzar was very terrified, and he was visibly shaken. ²⁴  His nobles were completely dumbfounded.

[5:1]  ¹ 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]  ² 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]  ³ sn The king probably sat at an elevated head table.

[5:1]  ⁴ tn Aram “the thousand.”

[5:2]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ tn Or “taken.”

[5:2]  ⁸ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[5:2]  ⁹ 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.

[5:3]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ 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.”

[5:5]  ¹² tn Aram “came forth.”

[5:5]  ¹³ sn The mention of the lampstand in this context is of interest because it suggests that the writing was in clear view.

[5:5]  ¹⁴ tn While Aramaic פַּס (pas) can mean the palm of the hand, here it seems to be the back of the hand that is intended.

[5:6]  ¹⁵ tn Aram “[the king’s] brightness changed for him.”

[5:6]  ¹⁶ tn Aram “his thoughts were alarming him.”

[5:6]  ¹⁷ tn Aram “his loins went slack.”

[5:7]  ¹⁸ tn Aram “in strength.”

[5:7]  ¹⁹ tn Aram “cause to enter.”

[5:7]  ²⁰ tn Aram “answered and said.”

[5:7]  ²¹ sn Purple was a color associated with royalty in the ancient world.

[5:7]  ²² tn The term translated “golden collar” here probably refers to something more substantial than merely a gold chain (cf. NIV, NCV, NRSV, NLT) or necklace (cf. NASB).

[5:8]  ²³ tc Read וּפִשְׁרֵהּ (ufishreh) with the Qere rather than וּפִשְׁרָא (ufishra’) of the Kethib.

[5:9]  ²⁴ tn Aram “his visage altered upon him.” So also in v. 10.