Daniel 7

Daniel 7:1-9

1. Belfhazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand. 2. Belfhazzar, while he taffed 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. 3. Then they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of the temple of the house of GOD, which was at Jerusalem; and the king and his princes, his wives and his concubines drank in them. 4. They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone. 5. ¶ In the same hour came forth fingers of a man’s hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaiton of the wall of the king’s palace; and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote. 6. Then the king’s countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the s joints of his loins were loofed, and his knees smote one against another. 7. The king cried aloud to bring in the astrologers, the Chaldeans, and the loot-sayers: and the king spake and said to the wife-men of Babylon, Whoever shall read this writing, and shew the interpretation thereof, shall be clothed with scarlet, and have a chain of gold about his neck, and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom. 8. Then came in all the king’s wife-men, but they could not read the writing, nor make known to the king the interpretation thereof. 9. Then was king Belfhazzar greatly troubled, and his countenance was changed in him, and his lords were astonished.

Belfhazzar, the subject of this chapter, was the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar, Jer. xxvii. 7. whose monarchy, according to the term fixed in the prophetic word, was now halting to ruin. We have here,

1. An account of his impiety and profanensis. Unaffected with the perilousness of his only, though a victorious army was at the gates of Babylon; on some returning solemnity in honour of his gods, or to celebrate his birth-day, he invites all the great men of his court, or officers of his army, to partake of a grand entertainment he had provided, and gracefully condescends to make one at the festal board, and drank wine before them. In the midst of mirth and jollity, the sacred vessels of the temple occurred to him; and in a frolick, or to express his contempt of Israel’s God, and to do honour to his own, he commands them to be brought, and all present drank out of them, and praised their idol gods, who had given them these spoils of their enemies: probably the report of the deliverance of Israel from Babylon might now be propagated, the seventy years being just at an end; some say that very night they expired; and this might be done in defiance of Israel’s God, and in ridicule of the prophetic word. Note, (1.) Drunkenness is the door to every abomination. (2.) They are hastening apace to ruin, who can make a jell of things sacred. (3.) The joyous sinner in the midst of his carousals is a most pitiable object, dancing and singing on the brink of the gulph where the worm dries not, and the fire is not quenched.

2. A sudden event terribly interrupts their impious joys. In the midst of their carousals, a hand appears over against the candlestick, and wines upon the plaiton of the wall. Struck with terror at the fight, Belfhazzar’s countenance changed, his pallid cheeks, his quivering lips, his trembling knees, his rettering frame, bespoke the horrors of his soul, and conscious guilt weakened due forebodings of the dreadful doom herder post-tended. In haste he calls aloud to bring the wiser of his Chaldean, logry, and promises the highest rewards to the man who can read and interpret the writing, but in vain; for though the words were Chalde, the manner or form of writing was such as entirely baffled their skill: or by a divine judgment, to make the skill of Daniel more illustrious, God confounded their underfundings: and this incensed the more the anxiety of the monarch, and filled his lords with confirmation and astonishment. Note, (1.) The most daring sinners God can reach; one touch of his hand, yea, their own thoughts let loose upon

Vol. II.

them, are enough to make them a terror to themselves. (2.) When Chalk Shall an unknown writing thus trouble the confidence of Belfhazzar, and shall not all the curles so plainly written in the book of God, affect the careless and impenitent?

10. ¶ Now the queen, by reason of the words of the king and his lords, came into the banquet-house; and the queen spake and said, ‘O king, live for ever: ’let not thy thoughts trouble thee, nor let thy countenance be changed. 11.’ There is a man in thy kingdom, in whom is the spirit of the holy gods, and in the days of thy father, light and understanding and wisdom like the wisdom of the gods, was found in him; whom the king Nebuchadnezzar thy father, the king, I say, thy father made ‘matter of the magicians, astrologers, Chaldeans, and loot-sayers. 12. Foralmuch as ‘an excellent spirit, and knowledge, and understanding, interpreting of dreams, and shewing of hard sentences, and disloving of doubts were found in the same Daniel,’ whom the king named Beltehazzar: now let Daniel be called, and he will shew the interpretation. 13. Then was Daniel brought in before the king; and the king spake and said unto Daniel, art thou that Daniel, which art of the children of the captivity of Judah, whom the king my father brought out of Jewry? 14. I have even heard of thee, that ’the spirit of the gods is in thee, and that light, and understanding, and excellent wisdom is found in thee. 15. And now the wife men, the astrologers have been brought in before me, that they should read this writing, and make known unto me the interpretation thereof: ‘but they could not shew the interpretation of the thing. 16. And I have heard of thee, that thou canst make interpretations, and disloy douts: now if thou canst read the writing, and make known to me the interpretation thereof, thou shalt be clothed with scarlet, and have a chain of gold about thy neck,’ and shalt be the third ruler in the kingdom. 17. ¶ Then Daniel answered and said before the king, ‘Let thy gifts be to thyself, and give thy rewards to another, yet I will read the writing unto the king, and make known to him the interpretation. 18. O thou king, ’the most high GOD gave Nebuchadnezzar thy father a kingdom, and majesty, and glory, and honour. 19. And for the majesty that he gave him, ‘all people, nations, and languages, trembled and feared before him: whom he would he shew, and whom he would he kept alive, and whom he would he put down. 20. But ‘when his heart was lifted up, and his mind hardened § in pride,’ he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him. 21. And he was ‘driven from the sons of men, and his heart was made like the beasts, and his dwelling was with the wild allies: they fell him with grafs like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, ’till he knew that the most high GOD ruled in the kingdom of men, and that he appointed over it whomsoever he will. 22. And thou his son, O Belfhazzar, hath not humbled thine heart, though thou knewest all this: 23. But hath lifted up thyself against the LORD of heaven, and they have brought the vessels of his house before thee, and thou and thy lords, thy wives and thy concubines have drunk wine in them, and thou hath praised the gods of silver and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know: and the GOD in whose hand thy breath is, and ‘whose art all thy ways, hath thou not ‘glorified. 24. Then was the part of the hand sent from him, and this writing was written. 25. ¶ And this is the writing that was written, MENE MENE, TEKEL UPHIARSIN. 26. This is the interpretation of the thing; MENE, God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it. 27. TEKEL, ’thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting. 28. PERES, thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Perilans. 29. Then commanded Belfhazzar, and they clothed Daniel with scarlet, and put a chain of gold about his neck, and made a proclamation concerning him, that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom.

Daniel 7:10-29

In this state of dismay and confusion we have, 1. The advice of the queen; who had not been present at 3 U the

Before Christ the fealt; but, on bearing what had passed, had come to the lanquetting-house. She is supposed to be not the wife of Belfhaxzar, but of his father Evilmerodach, called by Herodotus Nicorcis, and greatly famed for her prudence: though others think her to be Amylis, the grandmother of the king, and wife of Nebuchadnezzar. It appears she was well acquainted with the transactions of former time, and knew the ablates of Daniel, and therefore is bold to say, though the wife men of Babylon were at a stand, that the king need not fear but an interpreter could be found. Probably Daniel’s interest had long since declined at court, and he seems now to have lived in obscurity among the red of his captive countrymen. So ready often, in a new reign, are the best and most faithful of the ancient counsellors to be thrown by and neglected. But the high character the queen gives of this now forgotten face could not but excite a desire to have him called. She speaks of him as something more than human, possessed of wisdom, approaching omniscience and penetration to deep, that no secrets or difficulties whatever puzzled him; and by experience the king Nebuchadnezzar had proved him to be possessed of a spirit far excelling all the magicians and astrologers of his kingdom. In consequence of which, he had advanced him to be master of all the fages, and named him Beltehaxzar, in honour of his god. The queen desires therefore he may be free for, and doubts not but he will give the king full satisfaction.

2. Daniel is instantly summoned, and appears before the king, unknown to him by person, as appears by Belfhaxzar’s question, v. 13. But having heard such high encomians of his wisdom, he is desirous to try whether he can read and interpret the writing, of which the magicians confess their ignorance, and promise him the same rewards as he had offered to them, if he could clearly explain the matter: even that he should be arrayed in richest robes of honour, and promoted to the third place for dignity in his kingdom.

3. Daniel undertakes to read and interpret the writing, but prefacts his discourse with some striking remarks and admonitions.

(1.) The proffered gifts he nobly disloans, as the reward of his interpretation; he neither wanted nor fought them. At his age, advancement would be but a burden, and when the whole government was so quickly to be overturned, such honours were met worth acceptance. Yet he will freely satisfy the king, if that can be called satisfaction, which, instead of relieving his fears, must increase his distress. Note, A little of the men approaching end of all things should make us fit loose to the tribes of this changing and perishing world.

(2.) He recounts God’s dispensations towards his father, or, as is most commonly supposed, his grandfather, Nebuchadnezzar, it being not unusual in scripture to term a more remote ancestor father. By the providence and gift of the most high God, from whom all good things come, and to whole blessing all our prosperity ought ever to be ascribed, Nebuchadnezzar had acquired such dominion, honour, and authority, as perhaps no prince before had ever attained it: so irresistible his power, that none dared contend with him; and trembling at his feet, all nations bowed before him. His government defends, his authority abolishes the liberty and property, the life or death of all his subjects, and on his breath; his will was law, his orders obeyed without remonstrance or hesitation: a dangerous power to be vetted in the bosom of a fallen creature, a curse upon the land where such arbitrary monarchs rule. Abusing his authority, Nebuchadnezzar had acted with that tyranny and oppression which lawless power, directed by captive, naturally produced; and hardened in pride, he not only behaved unjust to man, but insistent towards the most high, ascribing to his own prowess his successes, and affecting independence of every superior. For these things the God of heaven hurled him from his throne, and degraded him not merely to the lowest state of human measures, but to a level with the brute creation, to be the companion of tuals agis, ver. 21. justly depriving him of the reason he had abused, and for his savagents and oppression, fending him to dwell with the beasts he chose to imitate; till humbled in the dust, he was brought to acknowledge the government of the most high, and own himself the subject of his pleasure.

(3.) He arraigns Belfhaxzar for his crimes, aggravated by the neglect of all the warnings God had given him in his father’s case. He knew all that had passed, yet nevertheless.

(1.) He had not humbled his heart, ver. 22. but continued impenitent in the same pride and rebellion against God. Note, It is an aggravation of children’s sins, if inflicted it being admonished by their fathers miseries, they persist to follow their destructive ways.

(2.) He had exceeded in impiety his ungodly fire. Thus had lifted up thyself against, or above the Lord of heaven, with more daring blasphemy, defying his power and dishonoring his name, as if he was his superior, and shewing the contempt in which he held him, by his horrid profanation of the vessels of the temple, which he praised his idol gods, seafed to the vessels from which he poured out the libation to them.

(3.) The God in whole hands sly breath is, and whoever are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified; a charge, before which who need

not tremble! our breath is from him, it is momentarily preserved by him, our ways under his conquest, every event at his disposal. To glorify him is the great end of our being, our duty, and should be our delight; but we have failed and gone allay every one in his own way, casting off his government, and negligent of his glory. The Lord humble us for this, that we may not meet Belfhaxzar’s doom.

4. Having thus proved his crimes, Daniel pronounces his doom, according to the tenor of the writing on the walls, the explication of which he had demanded. Then when his iniquity was at the height, at this impious feast, came this hand from God, and wrote these words, MENE MENE, TEKEE, UPHARSSIN. The words are Chaldee, and signify, He hath numbered, he hath numbered, he hath weighed, and they divide the several particulars of which he explains:

MENE, God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it; the term of the monarchy is expiring, on ruin is near, and the word is repeated to shew its certainty.

TEKEE, The art weighed in the holiness, and found wanting; God, who weighs in the balances of exact justice the actions and characters of men, pronounces him worthless and reprobate.

PEKEE, the singular of Pharlin, (U being the copulative) And thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Perform; such is the irreversible decree of the Almighty; and Belfhaxzar, convinced in his confidence that Daniel had broken the truth, though so fearful the sentence, immediately confers on him the promised reward. Withering honours! the pageantry of an hour, and all this world’s honours viewed in their true light, are no better.

The sinner and the hypocrite’s doom is like Belfhaxzar’s. At death their days are numbered; in judgment they will be weighed in the balance of God’s holy law, and found wanting; and then be given up to the devil and his angels, to be tormented to eternity.

30. ¶ In that night was Belfhaxzar the king of the Chaldeans Slain. 31. And ‘Darius the Median took the kingdom, king? about therefore and two years old.

v. 30, 31. The writing is scarce sooner interpreted than verified. That very night the city was taken, and Belfhaxzar Slain: taking advantage of this debauch of the king, hiftory informs us, that Cyrus entered the city by the bed of the river, the waters of which he had cut off; and the guards being fast asleep, and overcome with wine, made no resistance; so that all the gates being opened, Gadates and Gobiryas, two great men, who being ill used by Belfhaxzar, had revolted to Cyrus, went directly to the palace, and shew the king with all his attendants. Thus ended the Babylonish empire; and Darius the Medes, called also Cyaxares, the uncle of Cyrus, ascended the throne, the first king of the second monarchy. He was sixty-two years old, and consequently was born the year Jechoniak was carried captive, 2 Kings xxiv. 12. God so ordering, that at the very time his people were first into Babylon, their deliverer should be provided. Cyrus reigned in conjunction with his uncle; though being the younger, he is not mentioned, and after two years succeeded him in the late government of the empire, concerning whom so many prophecies had gone before, all which we find he most exactly fulfilled. Thus though God visit his people for their sins, he will not be wrought for ever; and in the darkest day of affliction there is still hope in the end.