Daniel 5:

Reading #403  The fall of Babylon

While Biblical dates are not always easy to ascertain, it seems that Nebuchadnezzar died around 562BC after a long reign of 44 years, and was succeeded by his son Evilmerodach. (See 2 Kings 25:27-29.)  After a short reign of two years, he was assassinated, and it was his brother-in-law, Nergalsharezer, one of the leaders in Nebuchadnezzar’s army, who took the throne. (Jeremiah 39:3.)  He, in turn ruled from 560 to 556BC, after which his son took over for two months, before Nabonidus (another son-in-law of Nebuchadnezzar) became king after another coup.  Then, because he was going off on a long campaign against northern Arabia, Nabonidus in his third year made his son Belshazzar regent over Babylon.  Nabonidus liked the country of northern Arabia so much he rebuilt the cities he had conquered and decided to live there.    

This makes Belshazzar the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar (Nabonidus had married one of Nebuchadnezzar’s daughters), and the Spirit of God picks up the story now in October 539BC, about 23 years after Nebuchadnezzar’s death and 67 years since Daniel’s captivity began, making him an old man in his eighties, and retired from active work.

***************(Begin Quote)

Daniel 5:

1 Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand.

***************(End Quote)

This was an act of defiance against the god of the Medo-Persian alliance which was led by a Persian general named Cyrus, who were encamped around the city, besieging it.  Babylon was believed to be impregnable because of its defences (and its god), and because it was big enough to grow its own food the Babylonians were sure that the attacking armies would eventually give up.  Ample water was available from the river which ran through the wall and across the town.

***************(Begin Quote)

Daniel 5:

2 Belshazzar, while he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem; that the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, might drink therein. 3 Then they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of the temple of the house of God which was at Jerusalem; and the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, drank in them.

4 They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone.

***************(End Quote)

All the attractions that wealth and power could command, added splendour to the scene.  Beautiful women with their enchantments were among the guests in attendance at the royal banquet, for this was not a normal party.  Men of genius and education were there.  Princes and statesmen drank wine like water and revelled under its maddening influence. It was anti-Christian Babylon in full flower, proud and rebellious and sinful. 

A lateral thought:

That which we are reading about is a faint picture of what will happen at the end of time to another “Babylon”.    It is written:

***************(Begin Quote)

Revelation 18:

2 And he [an angel] cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, “Babylon THE GREAT is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird [it’s riddled with spiritualism]. 3 For ALL nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication [spiritual adultery] with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies”.

4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, “Come out of her, My people, that you be not partakers of her sins, and that you receive not of her plagues. 5 For her sins have reached to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities . . .  “for she says in her heart, ‘I sit a queen, and am no widow [I have all the governments of the world with me], and shall see no sorrow’.”

8 Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the LORD God who judges her.

9 And the kings of the earth [the politicians], who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning, 10 standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, “Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city [and her religion]!  For in one hour is your judgment come”.

***************(End Quote)

Let’s get back to our story:  From my library: 

***************(Begin Quote)

With reason dethroned through shameless intoxication, and with the lower impulses and passions now in the ascendancy, the king himself took the lead in the riotous orgy . . .  As the feast progressed he decide that he would prove that nothing was too sacred for his hands to handle . . .  Little did Belshazzar think that there was a heavenly Witness to his idolatrous revelry; that a divine Watcher, unrecognized, looked upon the scene of profanation, heard the sacrilegious mirth, beheld the idolatry.  But soon the uninvited Guest made His presence felt.  When the revelry was at its height a bloodless hand came forth and traced upon the walls of the palace characters that gleamed like fire – words which, though unknown to the vast throng, were a portent of doom to the now conscience-stricken king and his guests.

***************(End Quote)

In an ultimate show of contempt for all the gods of the nations, Belshazzar had used the holy vessels from the sanctuary in Jerusalem to stage a drunken orgy, and this act took him out of the living God’s protection totally.

***************(Begin Quote)

Daniel 5:

5 In the same hour came forth fingers of a man's hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaster of the wall of the king's palace [where it could be plainly seen]: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote.

***************(End Quote)

Although a strong man under normal circumstances, Belshazzar believed that he had seen the hand of a god, and was totally unnerved by his experience.

***************(Begin Quote)

Daniel 5:  

6 Then the king's countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another. 7 The king cried aloud to bring in the astrologers, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers.  And the king spoke, and said to the wise men of Babylon, “Whosoever shall read this writing, and show me the interpretation thereof, shall be clothed with scarlet, and have a chain of gold about his neck, and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom”.

8 Then came in all the king's wise men: but they could not read the writing, nor make known to the king the interpretation thereof.

***************(End Quote)

As usual in those days (and I believe not so uncommon even today) the ruler called on his psychic wise men for an explanation, which they could not give even though it was written in the Hebrew language.  (Although the words were plain Hebrew, the message’s meaning was not plain.  It needed divine wisdom to decipher it.) Because he was the second ruler, and only the regent, Belsahazzar promised to make any person who could interpret the message into the third ruler in the kingdom.

***************(Begin Quote)

Daniel 5:  

9 Then was king Belshazzar greatly troubled, and his countenance was changed in him, and his lords were astonished. 10 Now the queen by reason of the words of the king and his lords came into the banquet house: and the queen spoke and said, “O king, live for ever: let not your thoughts trouble you, nor let your countenance be changed: 11 there is a man in your kingdom, in whom is the spirit of the holy gods; and in the days of your father [grandfather] light and understanding and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods, was found in him; whom the king Nebuchadnezzar your father, the king, I say, your father [ancestor], made master of the magicians, astrologers, Chaldeans, and soothsayers; 12  forasmuch as an excellent spirit, and knowledge, and understanding, interpreting of dreams, and showing of hard sentences, and dissolving of doubts, were found in the same Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar: now let Daniel be called, and he will show the interpretation”.

13 Then was Daniel brought in before the king.  And the king spoke and said to Daniel, “Are you that Daniel, which are of the children of the captivity of Judah, whom the king my father brought out of Jewry? 14 I have even heard of you, that the spirit of the gods is in you, and that light and understanding and excellent wisdom is found in you. 15 And now the wise men, the astrologers, have been brought in before me, that they should read this writing, and make known to me the interpretation thereof: but they could not show the interpretation of the thing: 16 and I have heard of you, that you can make interpretations, and dissolve doubts: now if you can read the writing, and make known to me the interpretation thereof, you shall be clothed with scarlet, and have a chain of gold about your neck, and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom”.

***************(End Quote)

The queen mentioned here was probably Belshazzar’s mother rather than one of his wives, for verse two mentions that they were already drinking with him.  Doubtless because she was an older lady, and a spiritual one, a daughter of Nebuchadnezzar’s, she was aware of Daniel’s existence and his connection with the living God.

***************(Begin Quote)

Daniel 5:

17 Then Daniel answered and said before the king, “Let your gifts be to yourself, and give your rewards to another; yet I will read the writing to the king, and make known to him the interpretation.

18 “O you king, the most high God gave Nebuchadnezzar your father a kingdom, and majesty, and glory, and honour: 19 and for the majesty that He gave him, all people, nations, and languages, trembled and feared before him: whom he would he slew; and whom he would he kept alive; and whom he would he set up; and whom he would he put down.

20 “But when his heart was lifted up, and his mind hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they [his heart and mind] took his glory from him: 21 and he was driven from the sons of men; and his heart was made like the beasts, and his dwelling was with the wild asses: they fed him with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven; till he knew that the most high God ruled in the kingdom of men, and that He appoints over it whomsoever He will.  

22 “And you his son, O Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, though you knew all this; 23 but have lifted up yourself against the LORD of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of His house before you, and you, and your lords, your wives, and your concubines, have drunk wine in them; and you have praised the gods of silver, and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know: and the God in whose hand your breath is, and whose are all your ways, have you not glorified.

24 “Then was the part of the hand sent from Him; and this writing was written. 25 And this is the writing that was written,

          MENE, MENE, [numbered, numbered];  

          TEKEL, [weighed]

          UPHARSIN [and divided].  

26 “This is the interpretation of the thing:

    MENE; God has numbered your kingdom, and finished it.

[Mentioned twice for the certainty of the judgment  

27 TEKEL; You are weighed in the balances, and are found wanting.  

28 PERES; Your kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians”.

[I’m told that “U-pharsin” is changed into “peres” by leaving out the “u” which means “and”, then making it into the singular form.]

***************(End Quote)

Standing before that illustrious, terror-stricken throng, the prophet of God reminded the king of Nebuchadnezzar's sin and fall, and reproved him for his own crimes.  Then turning to the writing on the wall, he read the message from Heaven.  The hand was gone, but the four terrible words were left.  With bated breath the people waited as Daniel announced their meaning.

Through the folly and weakness of Belshazzar, the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar, proud Babylon was to fall that very night.  In his youth given a share in kingly authority, Belshazzar gloried in his power and lifted up his heart against the God of heaven.  Many had been his opportunities to know the divine will and to understand his responsibility of rendering obedience to it.  He had known of his grandfather's mental illness when he had rejected God; and he was familiar with the story of Nebuchadnezzar's conversion and miraculous restoration.  But Belshazzar allowed the love of pleasure and self-glorification to wear away the lessons that he should never have forgotten.  He wasted the opportunities graciously granted him, and neglected to use the means within his reach for becoming more fully acquainted with truth.  That which Nebuchadnezzar had finally gained at the cost of untold suffering and humiliation, Belshazzar passed by with indifference, as so many grandchildren have done since.

Another lateral thought:

We should be aware that the same Witness that recorded the profanity of Belshazzar is present with us wherever we go, and be thankful that He does not “write on the wall” for us, for that means we have not yet reached the end of our probation, even though we may be doing the same things in principle.

***************(Begin Quote)

Daniel 5:  

29 Then commanded Belshazzar, and they clothed Daniel with scarlet, 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 In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain. 31 And Darius the Median took the kingdom, being about threescore and two [62] years old.

***************(End Quote)

At that very moment, the army of the Medes and Persians was advancing along an emptied-out river bed, past gates which had not been shut by drunken guards, and into the city.  Making their way unopposed to the palace, they killed the arrogant king and some of his officials, and took over the kingdom.  Tradition tells us that Nabonidus was exiled and Babylon ceased to exist as a power in the world.  Although it took some centuries even the city became derelict and has never been rebuilt.   (See Isaiah 13:1-20.) 

Let’s finish with a final word from God, written about 150 years before the event:

***************(Begin Quote)

Isaiah 44:

24 Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, and He that formed you from the womb, I am the LORD that makes all things; that stretches forth the heavens alone; that spreads abroad the earth by Myself . . .

27 That says to the deep, “Be dry, and I will dry up your rivers”. 28 That says of Cyrus, “He is My shepherd, and shall perform all My pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem, ‘You shall be built’; and to the temple, ‘Your foundation shall be laid’.” [Which he did.  Ezra 1:1-11.]     

Chapter 45:

1 Thus says the LORD to His anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut; 2  “I will go before you, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron: 3 and I will give you the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that I, the LORD, which call you by your name, am the God of Israel.

4 “For Jacob My servant's sake, and Israel My elect [for the good of My representative people], I have even called you by your name: I have surnamed you, though you have not known Me. 5 I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside Me: I girded you, though you have not known Me: 6 that they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside Me.  I am the LORD, and there is none else”.

***************(End Quote)

In this way the care and dominion of the world in which His people lived passed to an “inferior” nation – yet the leader of which the God of heaven “anointed” and “whose right hand He held”.

Bye for now, Ron

P.  S.  There are but very few who are readers and searchers of the Scriptures, who compare the stories of the Old Testament with the statements of the New, and by searching find the key that unlocks the treasure house of heaven.

On to next reading                                   Back to previous reading

View a PDF version of this reading

***************(Begin Quote)

2 Kings 25:

27 And it came to pass in the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, that Evilmerodach king of Babylon in the year that he began to reign, did lift up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah out of prison. 28 And he spoke kindly to him, and set his throne above the throne of the [other captive] kings that were with him in Babylon; 29 and changed his prison garments: and he did eat bread continually before him all the days of his life.  Back

***************(End Quote)

***************(Begin Quote)

Jeremiah 39:

13 So Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard sent, and Nebushasban, Rabsaris, and Nergalsharezer, Rabmag, and all the king of Babylon's princes; 14 even they sent, and took Jeremiah out of the court of the prison, and committed him unto Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan, that he should carry him home: so he dwelt among the people.  Back

***************(End Quote)

***************(Begin Quote)

Isaiah 13:

1 The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz did see . . .

6 Howl you; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty. 7 Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man's heart shall melt: 8 and they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travails: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames . . .    

17 Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, which shall not regard silver; and as for gold, they shall not delight in it [they are not doing it for the money] . . . 19 And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. 20 It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there. [It is still desolate in the country of Iraq.  Saddam Hussein started to rebuild it as a tourist spot but never finished.]  Back

**************(End Quote)  

On to next reading                                   Back to previous reading