Daniel 5:3-6

5:3 So they brought the gold and silver ¹  vessels that had been confiscated from the temple, the house of God ²  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 ³  and wrote on the plaster of the royal palace wall, opposite the lampstand. ⁴  The king was watching the back ⁵  of the hand that was writing. 5:6 Then all the color drained from the king’s face ⁶  and he became alarmed. ⁷  The joints of his hips gave way, ⁸  and his knees began knocking together.

Daniel 5:17-30

Daniel Interprets the Handwriting on the Wall

5:17 But Daniel replied to the king, “Keep your gifts, and give your rewards to someone else! However, I will read the writing for the king and make known its ⁹  interpretation. 5:18 As for you, O king, the most high God bestowed on your father Nebuchadnezzar a kingdom, greatness, honor, and majesty. ¹⁰  5:19 Due to the greatness that he bestowed on him, all peoples, nations, and language groups were trembling with fear ¹¹  before him. He killed whom he wished, he spared ¹²  whom he wished, he exalted whom he wished, and he brought low whom he wished. 5:20 And when his mind ¹³  became arrogant ¹⁴  and his spirit filled with pride, he was deposed from his royal throne and his honor was removed from him. 5:21 He was driven from human society, his mind ¹⁵  was changed to that of an animal, he lived ¹⁶  with the wild donkeys, he was fed grass like oxen, and his body became damp with the dew of the sky, until he came to understand that the most high God rules over human kingdoms, and he appoints over them whomever he wishes.

5:22 “But you, his son ¹⁷  Belshazzar, have not humbled yourself, ¹⁸  although you knew all this. 5:23 Instead, you have exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven. You brought before you the vessels from his temple, and you and your nobles, together with your wives and concubines, drank wine from them. You praised the gods of silver, gold, bronze, iron, wood, and stone – gods ¹⁹  that cannot see or hear or comprehend! But you have not glorified the God who has in his control ²⁰  your very breath and all your ways! 5:24 Therefore the palm of a hand was sent from him, and this writing was inscribed.

5:25 “This is the writing that was inscribed: MENE, MENE, ²¹  TEQEL, and PHARSIN. ²²  5:26 This is the interpretation of the words: ²³  As for mene ²⁴  – 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 ²⁵  – your kingdom is divided and given over to the Medes and Persians.”

5:29 Then, on Belshazzar’s orders, ²⁶  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, ²⁷  was killed. ²⁸ 

[5:3]  ¹ 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]  ² 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]  ³ tn Aram “came forth.”

[5:5]  ⁴ sn The mention of the lampstand in this context is of interest because it suggests that the writing was in clear view.

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

[5:6]  ⁷ tn Aram “his thoughts were alarming him.”

[5:6]  ⁸ tn Aram “his loins went slack.”

[5:17]  ⁹ tn Or “the.”

[5:18]  ¹⁰ tn Or “royal greatness and majestic honor,” if the four terms are understood as a double hendiadys.

[5:19]  ¹¹ tn Aram “were trembling and fearing.” This can be treated as a hendiadys, “were trembling with fear.”

[5:19]  ¹² tn Aram “let live.” This Aramaic form is the aphel participle of חַיָה(khayah, “to live”). Theodotion and the Vulgate mistakenly take the form to be from מְחָא (mÿkha’, “to smite”).

[5:20]  ¹³ tn Aram “heart.”

[5:20]  ¹⁴ sn The point of describing Nebuchadnezzar as arrogant is that he had usurped divine prerogatives, and because of his immense arrogance God had dealt decisively with him.

[5:21]  ¹⁵ tn Aram “heart.”

[5:21]  ¹⁶ tn Aram “his dwelling.”

[5:22]  ¹⁷ tn Or “descendant”; or “successor.”

[5:22]  ¹⁸ tn Aram “your heart.”

[5:23]  ¹⁹ tn Aram “which.”

[5:23]  ²⁰ tn Aram “in whose hand [are].”

[5:25]  ²¹ tc The Greek version of Theodotion lacks the repetition of מְנֵא (mÿne’, cf. NAB).

[5:25]  ²² tc The Aramaic word is plural. Theodotion has the singular (cf. NAB “PERES”).

[5:26]  ²³ tn Or “word” or “event.” See HALOT 1915 s.v. מִלָּה.

[5:26]  ²⁴ 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]  ²⁵ sn Peres (פְּרֵס) is the singular form of פַרְסִין (pharsin) in v. 25.

[5:29]  ²⁶ tn Aram “Belshazzar spoke.”

[5:30]  ²⁷ tn Aram “king of the Chaldeans.”

[5:30]  ²⁸ 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.