The Handwriting on the Wall
Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand. Dan. 5:1
Belshazzar the king... Belshazzar was the son of Nabonidus and grandson of Nebuchadnezzar. The inscriptions show that he was coregent while his father went to meet Cyrus in battle. This chapter follows Daniel 7-8 in chronology, for the vision of Dan. 7:1-28 was seen in the first year and that of Dan. 8:1-27 in the third year of Belshazzar. The author no doubt put the message of this chapter here in order to keep the prophetic sections of Daniel 7:1-12:13 together.
a great feast... The hall in which this feast was held has been recently excavated. It was 60 x 172 feet The walls were beautifully decorated with painted stucco designs.
of his Lords... Aramaic, rabreban, great ones (Dan. 4:36; 5:1, 5:9, 5:10, 5:23; 6:17).
and drank wine... Babylon was being besieged by the Persian army, led by Ugbaru, governor of Gutium, while Belshazzar, inside the city, was giving a great banquet for 1,000 of his nobles. Belshazzar’s name means “Bel (another name for the god Marduk) has protected the king.” Perhaps the banquet was given to show Belshazzar’s contempt for the Persians and to allay his people’s fears. Archaeologists have excavated a large hall in Babylon 55 feet wide and 165 feet long that had plastered walls. Such a room would have been sufficient to house a gathering of this size. Belshazzar considered his city secure from assault because of its massive walls. Within the city were supplies that would sustain it for 20 years. Therefore the king felt he had little cause for concern.
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