Daniel 5:1-4

The Writing on the Wall

1 King Belshazzar gave a great banquet for a thousand of his nobles and drank wine with them.
2 While Belshazzar was drinking his wine, he gave orders to bring in the gold and silver goblets that Nebuchadnezzar his father[a] had taken from the temple in Jerusalem, so that the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines might drink from them.
3 So they brought in the gold goblets that had been taken from the temple of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines drank from them.
4 As they drank the wine, they praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone.

Daniel 5:1-4 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.

Cross References 9

  • 1. ver 30; Daniel 7:1; Daniel 8:1
  • 2. S 1 Kings 3:15; Esther 1:3
  • 3. Jeremiah 50:35
  • 4. S Isaiah 21:5
  • 5. S 2 Kings 24:13; S 2 Chronicles 36:10; S Jeremiah 52:19
  • 6. S Esther 2:14
  • 7. S Esther 1:7; Daniel 1:2
  • 8. Judges 16:24
  • 9. S Esther 1:10; Psalms 135:15-18; Habakkuk 2:19; Revelation 9:20

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. Or "ancestor" ; or "predecessor" ; also in verses 11, 13 and 18
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