Lives of Scripture

Belshazzar, ruling in Babylon, held a great feast for a thousand of his nobles and, in a display of arrogant contempt, ordered the gold and silver vessels his predecessor Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the Jerusalem temple to be brought out so the assembly could drink from them while praising "the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone" (Daniel 5:1-4). Immediately, the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster wall of the banquet hall; Belshazzar's face turned pale and his knees knocked together in terror, but none of his wise men could read or interpret the writing (5:5-9). At the queen's suggestion, Daniel was brought in; he refused Belshazzar's offered rewards but agreed to read the message anyway (5:10-17). Daniel first reminded Belshazzar that Nebuchadnezzar had learned through hard humbling that "the Most High God is ruler over the realm of mankind," a lesson Belshazzar had refused to learn despite knowing it, choosing instead to defile God's sacred vessels and praise lifeless idols (5:18-23). The writing -- "MENE, MENE, TEKEL, PARSIN" -- meant God had numbered his kingdom's days and brought it to an end, weighed him and found him deficient, and was dividing his kingdom to the Medes and Persians (5:24-28). Belshazzar honored Daniel with a robe and rank as promised, but "that same night Belshazzar the Chaldean king was slain," and Darius the Mede took the kingdom (5:29-31).