Daniel 5

Daniel 5:2

Belshazzar, while he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem; that the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, might drink therein.

Belshazzar, while he was drinking wine, commanded, in a scorn and reproach to God, to bring forth those vessels of gold and silver, which his grandfather Nebuchadnezzar had brought out from the temple of God which was in Jerusalem; that the king, and his princes, his wives, and concubines, might please themselves in insulting upon that God, whose spoils they were. So verse 3.

Daniel 5:4

They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone.

And, as they drank their wine in these once-hallowed vessels, they triumphed over that God, to whom they had been consecrated; and magnified the power of their idols of gold, and silver, &c. as if by their might these victories had been achieved, and these rich spoils obtained.

Daniel 5:5

In the same hour came forth fingers of a man’s hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaister of the wall of the king’s palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote.

In the very same hour, while they were offering this affront to the God of Heaven, it pleased the just and powerful God, to shew, that he took notice of this presumptuous impiety; and therefore he caused a sudden and dreadful apparition of the fingers of a man’s hand, as it were, writing over against the candlestick, where it might best be seen, upon the plaister of the wall of the banqueting house; and the king only, at first, saw these fingers that thus wrote.

Daniel 5:6

Then the king’s countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another.

Then the king’s colour began to go away, and he waxed pale and ghastly; and his mind was so troubled at this fearful and strange sight, that he grew, as it were, suddenly paralytic: his joints seemed as if they had been quite loosed, and, in an extremity of trembling, his knees smote one against another.

Daniel 5:25

And this is the writing that was written, MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.

And this is the writing that is written, Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin; that is, God hath perfectly numbered and reckoned up the days, both of the Babylonish Empire and the Jewish Captivity, and their utmost date is now come: and the same God hath well considered all thy ways and actions, and hath found thee utterly unanswerable both to his benefits, and to thine own place; and therefore hath determined to cast thee aside, as light gold, not fit for further use; and now hath taken a course to cut thee off from the earth, and to give thy kingdom into the hands of the Medes and Persians.

Daniel 5:30

In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain.

And, accordingly, that very night, Belshazzar the king was slain by the hands of Gadata and Gobrya, two of Cyrus’s noblemen; who, that very night, surprised Babylon, and became Lord of that Monarchy.

Daniel 5:31

And Darius the Median took the kingdom, being about threescore and two years old.

And Darius, the Median, father-in-law to Cyrus, by the consent and appointment of Cyrus, whom he had aided in this war, took upon him the kingdom, being threescore and two years old.