Daniel 5:22-31

22 And thou his son, O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thine heart, though thou knewest all this;

23 but hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of his house before thee, and thou and thy princes, thy wives and thy concubines, have drunk wine in them; furthermore, thou hast praised gods of silver and of gold, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone, which do not see, nor hear, nor know; and the God in whose hand is thy soul and whose are all thy ways, thou hast never honoured.

24 Then from his presence was sent the palm of the hand that sculpted this writing.

25 And the writing that he sculpted is, MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.

26 This is the interpretation of the thing: MENE; God has audited thy kingdom and finished it.

27 TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances and art found wanting.

28 PERES; Thy kingdom has been broken and is given to the Medes and Persians.

29 Then Belshazzar commanded, and they clothed Daniel with purple 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.

30 That same night Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans was slain.

31 And Darius the Median took the kingdom, being sixty-two years old.

Daniel 5:22-31 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO DANIEL 5

This chapter gives an account of a feast made by King Belshazzar, attended with drunkenness, idolatry, and profanation of the vessels taken out of the temple at Jerusalem, Da 5:1-4, and of the displeasure of God, signified by a handwriting on the wall, which terrified the king, and caused him to send in haste for the astrologers to read and interpret it, but they could not, Da 5:5-8, in this distress, which appeared in the countenances of him and his nobles, the queen mother advises him to send for Daniel, of whom she gives a great encomium, Da 5:9-12, upon which he was brought in to the king, and promised a great reward to read and interpret the writing; the reward he slighted, but promised to read and interpret the writing, Da 5:13-17 and after putting him in mind of what had befallen his grandfather Nebuchadnezzar, and charging him with pride, idolatry, and profanation of the vessels of the Lord, Da 5:18-23 reads and interprets the writing to him Da 5:24-28, when he had honour done him, and was preferred in the government, Da 5:29 and the chapter is concluded with an account of the immediate accomplishment of ancient prophecies, and of this handwriting, in the slaying of the king of Babylon, in the dissolution of the Babylonish monarchy, and the possession of it by Darius the Mede, Da 5:30,31.