Daniel 5:22-31

22 `And thou, his son, Belshazzar, hast not humbled thy heart, though all this thou hast known;

23 and against the Lord of the heavens thou hast lifted up thyself; and the vessels of His house they have brought in before thee, and thou, and thy great men, thy wives, and thy concubines, are drinking wine with them, and gods of silver, and of gold, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone, that are not seeing, nor hearing, nor knowing, thou hast praised: and the God in whose hand [is] thy breath, and all thy ways, Him thou hast not honoured.

24 `Then from before Him sent is the extremity of the hand, and the writing is noted down;

25 and this [is] the writing that is noted down: Numbered, Numbered, Weighed, and Divided.

26 This [is] the interpretation of the thing: Numbered -- God hath numbered thy kingdom, and hath finished it.

27 Weighed -- Thou art weighed in the balances, and hast been found lacking.

28 Divided -- Divided is thy kingdom, and it hath been given to the Medes and Persians.'

29 Then hath Belshazzar said, and they have clothed Daniel with purple, and a bracelet of gold [is] on his neck, and they have proclaimed concerning him that he is the third ruler in the kingdom.

30 In that night Belshazzar king of the Chaldeans is slain,

31 and Darius the Mede hath received the kingdom, when a son of sixty and two years.

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.