Daniel 5:5-12

5:5 At that very moment the fingers of a human hand appeared ¹  and wrote on the plaster of the royal palace wall, opposite the lampstand. ²  The king was watching the back ³  of the hand that was writing. 5:6 Then all the color drained from the king’s face ⁴  and he became alarmed. ⁵  The joints of his hips gave way, ⁶  and his knees began knocking together. 5:7 The king called out loudly ⁷  to summon ⁸  the astrologers, wise men, and diviners. The king proclaimed ⁹  to the wise men of Babylon that anyone who could read this inscription and disclose its interpretation would be clothed in purple ¹⁰  and have a golden collar ¹¹  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 ¹²  interpretation to the king. 5:9 Then King Belshazzar was very terrified, and he was visibly shaken. ¹³  His nobles were completely dumbfounded.

5:10 Due to the noise ¹⁴  caused by the king and his nobles, the queen mother ¹⁵  then entered the banquet room. She ¹⁶  said, “O king, live forever! Don’t be alarmed! Don’t be shaken! 5:11 There is a man in your kingdom who has within him a spirit of the holy gods. In the days of your father, he proved to have ¹⁷  insight, discernment, and wisdom like that ¹⁸  of the gods. ¹⁹  King Nebuchadnezzar your father appointed him chief of the magicians, astrologers, wise men, and diviners. ²⁰  5:12 Thus there was found in this man Daniel, whom the king renamed Belteshazzar, an extraordinary spirit, knowledge, and skill to interpret ²¹  dreams, solve riddles, and decipher knotty problems. ²²  Now summon ²³  Daniel, and he will disclose the interpretation.”

[5:5]  ¹ tn Aram “came forth.”

[5:5]  ² sn The mention of the lampstand in this context is of interest because it suggests that the writing was in clear view.

[5:5]  ³ 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]  ⁴ tn Aram “[the king’s] brightness changed for him.”

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

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

[5:7]  ⁷ tn Aram “in strength.”

[5:7]  ⁸ tn Aram “cause to enter.”

[5:7]  ⁹ tn Aram “answered and said.”

[5:7]  ¹⁰ sn Purple was a color associated with royalty in the ancient world.

[5:7]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² tc Read וּפִשְׁרֵהּ (ufishreh) with the Qere rather than וּפִשְׁרָא (ufishra’) of the Kethib.

[5:9]  ¹³ tn Aram “his visage altered upon him.” So also in v. 10.

[5:10]  ¹⁴ tn Aram “words of the king.”

[5:10]  ¹⁵ tn Aram “the queen” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV). In the following discourse this woman is able to recall things about Daniel that go back to the days of Nebuchadnezzar, things that Belshazzar does not seem to recollect. It is likely that she was the wife not of Belshazzar but of Nabonidus or perhaps even Nebuchadnezzar. In that case, “queen” here means “queen mother” (cf. NCV “the king’s mother”).

[5:10]  ¹⁶ tn Aram “The queen.” The translation has used the pronoun “she” instead because repetition of the noun here would be redundant in terms of English style.

[5:11]  ¹⁷ tn Aram “[there were] discovered to be in him.”

[5:11]  ¹⁸ tn Aram “wisdom like the wisdom.” This would be redundant in terms of English style.

[5:11]  ¹⁹ tc Theodotion lacks the phrase “and wisdom like the wisdom of the gods.”

[5:11]  ²⁰ tc The MT includes a redundant reference to “your father the king” at the end of v. 11. None of the attempts to explain this phrase as original are very convincing. The present translation deletes the phrase, following Theodotion and the Syriac.

[5:12]  ²¹ tc The translation reads מִפְשַׁר (mifshar) rather than the MT מְפַשַּׁר (mÿfashar) and later in the verse reads וּמִשְׁרֵא (mishre’) rather than the MT וּמְשָׁרֵא (mÿshare’). The Masoretes have understood these Aramaic forms to be participles, but they are more likely to be vocalized as infinitives. As such, they have an epexegetical function in the syntax of their clause.

[5:12]  ²² tn Aram “to loose knots.”

[5:12]  ²³ tn Aram “let [Daniel] be summoned.”