Daniel 5:22-31

22 And you his son, ^{[a] 1}Belshazzar, ²have not humbled your heart, though you knew all this,

23 but you have lifted up yourself against ³the Lord of heaven. And ⁴the vessels of his house have been brought in before you, and you and your lords, your wives, and your concubines have drunk wine from them. ⁵And you have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see or hear or know, ⁶but the God in whose hand is your breath, and ⁷whose are all your ways, ⁸you have not honored.

24 “Then from his presence ⁹the hand was sent, and this writing was inscribed.

25 And this is the writing that was inscribed: M ene, M ene, T ekel, and P arsin.

26 This is the interpretation of the matter: M ene, God has numbered^[b] the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end;

27 T ekel, ¹⁰you have been weighed^[c] in the balances and found wanting;

28 P eres, your kingdom is divided and given to ¹¹the Medes and ¹²Persians. ” ^[d]

29 Then ¹³Belshazzar gave the command, and Daniel ¹⁴was clothed with purple, a chain of gold was put around his neck, and a proclamation was made about him, that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom.

30 ¹⁵That very night ¹⁶Belshazzar the ¹⁷Chaldean king was killed.

31 ^[e] And ¹⁸Darius ¹⁹the Mede received the kingdom, being about 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.

Cross References

• 1. 5:22 See ver. 1
• 2. 5:22 [2 Chr. 33:23]
• 3. 5:23 [ch. 4:37]
• 4. 5:23 ver. 3; See ch. 1:2
• 5. 5:23 ver. 4
• 6. 5:23 Job 12:10
• 7. 5:23 Jer. 10:23
• 8. 5:23 [Acts 12:23; Rev. 16:9]
• 9. 5:24 ver. 5
• 10. 5:27 Job 31:6; Ps. 62:9
• 11. 5:28 ver. 31; [ch. 9:1; Isa. 13:17; 21:2; Jer. 51:28]
• 12. 5:28 See ch. 6:28
• 13. 5:29 [See ver. 22 above]
• 14. 5:29 [ver. 7, 16]
• 15. 5:30 Jer. 50:24; 51:31, 39, 57
• 16. 5:30 [See ver. 22 above]
• 17. 5:30 ch. 9:1
• 18. 5:31 ch. 9:1
• 19. 5:31 [See ver. 28 above]

Footnotes

• [a] 5:22 Or 'successor'
• [b] 5:26 Menesounds like the Aramaic for 'numbered'
• [c] 5:27 Tekelsounds like the Aramaic for 'weighed'
• [d] 5:28 Peres(the singular of 'Parsin') sounds like the Aramaic for 'divided' and for 'Persia'
• [e] 5:31 Ch 6:1 in Aramaic