Daniel 5:2

2 Praecepit ergo iam temulentus ut afferrentur vasa aurea et argentea, quae asportaverat Nabuchodonosor pater eius de templo, quod fuit in Ierusalem, ut biberent in eis rex, et optimates eius, uxoresque eius, et concubinae.

Daniel 5:2 Meaning and Commentary

Daniel 5:2

Belshazzar, while he tasted the wine
As he was drinking his cups, and delighted with the taste of the wine, and got merry with it: or, "by the advice of the wine" F8, as Aben Ezra and Jarchi interpret it, by a personification; as if that dictated to him, and put him upon doing what follows; and which often puts both foolish and wicked things into the heads of men, and upon doing them: then he commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels, which his father
Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem;
what these vessels were, and the number of them, we learn from the delivery of them afterwards to the prince of Judah by Cyrus, ( Ezra 1:9-11 ) , these were put into the temple of Bel by Nebuchadnezzar, ( Daniel 1:2 ) and from thence they were now ordered to be brought to the king's palace, and to the apartment where he and his nobles were drinking: that the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, might
drink therein;
Saadiah says, this day the seventy years' captivity ended; and so, in contempt of the promise and prophecy of it, he ordered the vessels to be brought out and drank in, to show that in vain the Jews expected redemption from it.


FOOTNOTES:

F8 (armx Mejb) "vino dictante", Tigurine version.

Daniel 5:2 In-Context

1 Baltassar rex fecit grande convivium optimatibus suis mille: et unusquisque secundum suam bibebat aetatem.
2 Praecepit ergo iam temulentus ut afferrentur vasa aurea et argentea, quae asportaverat Nabuchodonosor pater eius de templo, quod fuit in Ierusalem, ut biberent in eis rex, et optimates eius, uxoresque eius, et concubinae.
3 Tunc allata sunt vasa aurea, et argentea, quae asportaverat de templo, quod fuerat in Ierusalem: et biberunt in eis rex, et optimates eius, uxores et concubinae illius.
4 Bibebant vinum, et laudabant deos suos aureos, et argenteos, aereos, ferreos, ligneosque et lapideos.
5 In eadem hora apparuerunt digiti, quasi manus hominis scribentis contra candelabrum in superficie parietis aulae regiae: et rex aspiciebat articulos manus scribentis.
The Latin Vulgate is in the public domain.