The destruction of the kingdom of Babylon had been long and
often foretold when it was at a distance; in this chapter we have it
accomplished, and a prediction of it the very same night that it was
accomplished. Belshazzar now reigned in Babylon; some compute he had reigned
seventeen years, others but three; we have here the story of his exit and the
period of his kingdom. We must know that about two years before this Cyrus king
of Persia, a growing monarch, came against Babylon with a great army; Belshazzar
met him, fought him, and was routed by him in a pitched battle. He and his
scattered forces retired into the city, where Cyrus besieged them. They were
very secure, because the river Euphrates was their bulwark, and they had twenty
years; provision in the city; but in the second year of the siege he took it, as
is here related. We have in this chapter, I. The riotous, idolatrous,
sacrilegious feast which Belshazzar made, in which he filled up the measure of
his iniquity (v. 1-4). II. The alarm given him in the midst of his jollity by a
hand-writing on the wall, which none of his wise men could read or tell him the
meaning of (v. 5-9). III. The interpretation of the mystical characters by
Daniel, who was at length brought in to him, and dealt plainly with him, and
showed him his doom written (v. 10-28). IV. The immediate accomplishment of
the interpretation in the slaying of the king and seizing of the kingdom (v. 30,
31).
We have here Belshazzar the king very gay, but all of a sudden
very gloomy, and in straits in the fulness of his sufficiency. See how he
affronts God, and God affrights him; and wait what will be the issue of this
contest; and whether he that hardened his heart against God prospered.
I. See how the king affronted God, and put contempt upon him. He
made a great feast, or banquet of wine; probably it was some
anniversary solemnity, in honour off his birth-day or coronation-day, or in
honour of some of their idols. Historians say that Cyrus, who was now with his
army besieging Babylon, knew of this feast, and presuming that they then would
be off their guard, somno vinoque sepulti—buried in sleep and wine,
took that opportunity to attack the city, and so with the more ease made himself
master of it. Belshazzar upon this occasion invited a thousand of his lords
to come and drink with him. Perhaps they were such as had signalized themselves
in defense of the city against the besiegers; or these were his great council of
war, with whom, when they had well drunk, he would advise what was further to be
done. And they were to look upon it as a great favour that he drank wine
before them, for it was the pride of those eastern kings to be seldom seen.
He drank wine before them, for he made this feast, as Ahasuerus did, to show the
honour of his majesty. Now in this sumptuous feast, 1. He put an affront
upon the providence of God and bade defiance to his judgments. His city was now
besieged; a powerful enemy was at his gates; his life and kingdom lay at stake.
In all this the hand of the Lord had gone out against him, and by it he called
him to weeping, and mourning, and girding with sackcloth. God's voice
cried in the city, as Jonah to Nineveh, Yet forty days, or fewer, and
Babylon shall be destroyed. He should therefore, like the king of Nineveh,
have proclaimed a fast; but, as one resolved to walk contrary to God, he
proclaims a feast, and behold joy and gladness, slaying oxen, killing sheep,
eating flesh, and drinking wine, as if he dared the Almighty to do his
worst, Isa. 22:12, 13. To show how little fear he had of being forced to
surrender, for want of provisions, he spent thus extravagantly. Note, Security
and sensuality are sad presages of approaching ruin. Those that will not be
warned by judgments of God may expect to be wounded by them. 2. He put an
affront upon the temple of God, and bade defiance to his sanctuary, v. 2. While
he tasted the wine, he commanded to bring the vessels of the temple, that
they might drink in them. When he tasted how rich and fine the wine was,
"O," said he, "it is a pity but we should have holy vessels to
drink such delicious wine as this in," which was looked upon as a piece of
wit, and, to carry on the humour, the vessels of the temple were immediately
sent for. Nay, there seems to have been something more in it than a frolic, and
that it was done in a malicious despite to the God of Israel. The heart of his
people was very much upon these sacred vessels, as appears from Jer. 27:16, 18.
Their principal care, at their return, was about these, Ezra 1:7. Now, we may
suppose, they had an expectation of their deliverance approaching, reckoning the
seventy years of their captivity near a period; and some of them might perhaps
have given out some words to that purport, that shortly they should have the
vessels of the sanctuary restored to them, in defiance of which Belshazzar here
proclaims them to be his own, will keep them in store no longer, but will make
use of them among his own plate. Note, That mirth is sinful indeed, and fills
the measure of men's iniquity apace, which profanes sacred things and jests
with them. This ripened Babylon for ruin—that no songs would serve them but
the songs of Zion (Ps. 137:3), no vessels but the vessels of the
sanctuary. Let those who thus sacrilegiously alienate what is dedicated to God
and his honour know that he will not be mocked. 3. He put an affront upon
God himself, and bade defiance to his deity; for they drank wine, and praised
the gods of gold and silver, v. 4. They gave that glory to images, the work
of their own hands and creatures of their own fancy, which is due to the true
and living God only. They praised them either with sacrifices offered to them or
with songs sung in honour of them. When their heads were giddy, and their hearts
merry, with wine, they were in the fittest frame to praise the gods of gold
and silver, wood and stone; for one would think that men in their senses,
who had the command of a clear and sober thought, could not be guilty of so
gross an absurdity; they must be intoxicated ere they could be so infatuated.
Drunken worshippers, who are not men, but beasts, are the most proper for the
service of dunghill deities, that are not gods, but devils. They have erred
through wine, Isa. 27:7. They drank wine, and praised their idol-gods, as if
they had been the founders of their feast and the givers of all good things to
them. Or, when they were drinking wine, they praised their gods by drinking
healths to them; and the king drank wine before them (v. 1), that is, he
began the health, first to this god, and then to the other, till they went
through the bead-roll or farrago of them, those of wood and
stone not excepted. Note, Immorality and impiety, vice and profaneness,
strengthen the hands and advance the interests one of another. Drunken frolics
were an introduction to idolatry, and then idolatrous healths were a
shoeing-horn to further drunkenness.
II. See how God affrighted the king, and struck a terror upon
him. Belshazzar and his lords are in the midst of their revels, the cups going
round apace, and all upon the merry pin, drinking confusion, it may be, to Cyrus
and his army, and roaring out huzzas, in confidence of the speedy raising of the
siege; but the hour had come when that must be fulfilled which had been long ago
said of the king of Babylon, when his city should be besieged by the Persians
and Medes, Isa. 21:2-4. The night of my pleasures has he turned into fear to
me. The mirth of this ball at court must be spoiled, and a damp cast upon
their jollity, though the king himself be master of the revels; immediately,
when God speaks the word, we have him and all his guests in the utmost
confusion, and the end of their mirth is heaviness. 1. There appear the fingers
of a man's hand writing on the plaster of the wall, before the king's
face (v. 5), "the angel Gabriel," say the rabbin, "directing
these fingers and writing by them." "That divine hand" (says a
rabbi of our own, Dr. Lightfoot) "that had written the two tables for a law
to his people now writes the doom of Babel and Belshazzar upon the wall."
Here was nothing sent to frighten them which made a noise, or threatened their
lives, no claps of thunder nor flashes of lightning, no destroying angel with
his sword drawn in his hand, only a pen in the hand, writing upon the wall, over-against
the candlestick, where they might all see it by the light of their own
candle. Note, God's written word is sufficient to put the proudest boldest
sinners into a fright, when he is pleased to give it the setting on. The king
saw the part of the hand that wrote, but saw not the person whose hand it
was, which made the thing more frightful. Note, What we see of God, the part of
the hand that writes in the book of the creatures and the book of the scriptures
(Lo, these are parts of his ways, Job 26:14), may serve to possess us
with awful thoughts concerning that of God which we do not see. If this be the
finger of God, what is his arm made bare? And what is he? 2. The king is
immediately seized with a panic fear (v. 6): His countenance was changed
(his colour went and came); the joints of his loins were loosed, so that
he had no strength in them, but was struck with a pain in his back, as is usual
in a great fright; his knees smote one against another, so violently did
he tremble like an aspen leaf. But what was the matter? Why is he in such a
fright? He perceives not what is written, and how does he know but it may be
some happy presage of deliverance to him and to his kingdom? But the business
was his thoughts troubled him; his own guilty conscience flew in his
face, and told him that he had no reason to expect any good news from Heaven,
and that the hand of an angel could write nothing but terror to him. He that
knew himself liable to the justice of God immediately concluded this to be an
arrest in his name, a summons to appear before him. Note, God can soon awaken
the most secure and make the heart of the stoutest sinner to tremble; and there
needs no more to do it than to let loose his own thoughts upon him; they will
soon play the tyrant, and give him trouble enough. 3. The wise men of Babylon
are immediately called in, to see what they can make of this writing upon the
wall, v. 7. The king cried aloud, as one in haste, as one in earnest, to
bring the whole college of magicians, to try if they can read this writing,
and show the interpretation of it; for the king and all his lords cannot
pretend to it, it is out of their sphere. The study of divine revelation (such
as they had, or thought they had) and converse with the world of spirits were by
the heathen confined to one profession, and no other meddled with it; but what
is written to us by the finger of God is legible to all; whoever will may read
the mind of God in the scriptures. To engage these wise men to exert the utmost
of their skill in this matter, and provoke them to an emulation in the attempt,
he promised that whoever would give him a satisfactory account of this writing
should be dignified with the highest honours of the court. He knew what these
pretenders to wisdom aimed at, and what would please them, and therefore
promised them a scarlet robe and a gold chain, glorious things in
the eyes of those that know no better. Nay, he should be primus par regni—chief
minister of state, the third ruler in the kingdom, next to the king and his
heir apparent. 4. The king is disappointed in his expectations from them; they
can none of them read the writing, much less interpret it (v. 8), which
increases the king's confusion, v. 9. He likes the thing yet worse and worse,
and fears that mischief is towards him. His lords also, that had been
partners with him in his jollity, are now sharers with him in his terrors; they
also were astonished at their wits' end; and neither their numbers nor
their refreshment by wine would serve to keep up their spirits. The reason why
the wise men could not read the writing was not because it was written in any
language or characters unknown to them, but God either cast a mist before their
eyes or put such confusion upon their spirits that they could not read it, that
the honour of expounding this mystical writing might be reserved for Daniel.
Note, The terror of an awakened convinced conscience may justly be increased by
the utter insufficiency of all creatures to give it ease or satisfaction.
Here is, I. The information given to the king, by the
queen-mother, concerning Daniel, how fit he was to be consulted in this
difficult case. It is supposed that this queen was the widow of Evil-Merodach,
and was that famous Nitocris whom Herodotus mentions as a woman of extraordinary
prudence. She was not present at the feast, as the king's wives and
concubines were (v. 2); it was not agreeable to her age and gravity to keep
a merry night. But, tidings of the fright which the king and his lords were put
into being brought to her apartment, she came herself to the banqueting-house,
to recommend to the king a physician for his melancholy. She entreated him not
to be discouraged by the insufficiency of his wise men to solve this riddle, for
that there was a man in his kingdom that had more than once helped his
grandfather at such a dead lift, and, no doubt, could help him, v. 11, 12. She
could not undertake to read the writing herself, but directed him to one that
could; let Daniel be called now, who should have been called first. Now
observe, 1. The high character she gives of Daniel: He is a man in whom is
the spirit of the holy gods, who has something in him more than human, not
only the spirit of a man, which, in all, is the candle of the Lord,
but a divine spirit. According to the language of her country and religion, she
could not give a higher encomium of any man; she speaks honourably of him as a
man that had, (1.) An admirably good head: Light, and understanding, and
wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods, were found in him. Such an insight had
he into things secret, and such a foresight of things to come, that it was
evident he was divinely inspired; he had knowledge and understanding
beyond all the other wise men for interpreting dreams, explaining enigmas
or hard sentences, untying knots, and resolving doubts. Solomon had a wonderful
sagacity of this kind; but it should seem that in these things Daniel had more
of an immediate divine direction. Behold, a greater than Solomon himself is
here. Yet what was the wisdom of them both compared with the treasures of
wisdom hidden in Christ? (2.) He had an admirably good heart: An excellent
spirit was found in him, which was a great ornament to his wisdom and
knowledge, and qualified him to receive that gift; for God gives to a man
that is good in his sight wisdom, and knowledge, and joy. He was of a
humble, holy, heavenly spirit, had a devout and gracious spirit, a spirit of
zeal for the glory of God and the good of men. This was indeed an excellent
spirit. 2. The account she gives of the respect that Nebuchadnezzar had for him;
he was much in his favour, and was preferred by him: "The king thy
father" (that is, thy grandfather, but even to many generations
Nebuchadnezzar might well be called the father of that royal family, for he it
was that raised it to such a pitch of grandeur), "the king, I say, thy
father, made him master of the magicians." Perhaps Belshazzar had
sometimes, in his pride, spoken slightly of Nebuchadnezzar, and his politics,
and the methods of his government, and the ministers he employed, and thought
himself wiser than he; and therefore his mother harps upon that. "The
king, I say, thy father, to whose good management all thou hast
owing, he pronounced him chief of, and gave him dominion over, all the wise men
of Babylon, and named him Belteshazzar, according to the name of his god,
thinking thereby to put honour upon him;" but Daniel, by constantly making
use of his Jewish name himself (which he resolved to keep, in token of his
faithful adherence to his religion), had worn out that name; only the
queen-dowager remembered it, otherwise he was generally called Daniel.
Note, It is a very good office to revive the remembrance of the good services of
worthy men, who are themselves modest, and willing that they should be
forgotten. 3. The motion she makes concerning him: Let Daniel be called, and
he will show the interpretation. By this it appears that Daniel was now
forgotten at court. Belshazzar was a stranger to him, knew not that he had such
a jewel in his kingdom. With the new king there came in a new ministry, and the
old one was laid aside. Note, There are a great many valuable men, and such as
might be made very useful, that lie long buried in obscurity, and some that have
done eminent services that live to be overlooked and taken no notice of; but,
whatever men are, God is not unrighteous to forget the services done to his
kingdom. Daniel, being turned out of his place, lived privately, and sought not
any opportunity to come into notice again; yet he lived near the court and
within call, though Babylon wasthe righteous shine forth out of obscurity,
and before honour is humility.
II. The introducing of Daniel to the king, and his request to
him to read and expound the writing. Daniel was brought in before the king,
v. 13. He was now nearly ninety years of age, so that his years, and honours,
and former preferments, might have entitled him to a free admission into the
king's presence; yet he was willing to be conducted in, as a stranger, by the
master of the ceremonies. Note, 1. The king asks, with an air of haughtiness: Art
thou that Daniel who art of the children of the captivity? Being a Jew, and
a captive, he was loth to be beholden to him if he could help it. 2. He tells
him what an encomium he had heard of him (v. 14), that the spirit of the gods
was in him; and he had sent for him to try whether he deserved so high a
character or no. 3. He acknowledges that all the wise men of Babylon were
baffled; they could not read this writing, nor show the
interpretation, v. 16. But, 4. He promises him the same rewards that he had
promised them if he would do it, v. 16. It was strange that the magicians, when
now, and in Nebuchadnezzar's time, once and again, they were nonplussed, did
not attempt something to save their credit; if they had with a good assurance
said, "This is the meaning of such a dream, such a writing," who could
disprove them? But God so ordered it that they had nothing at all to say, as,
when Christ was born, the heathen oracles were struck dumb.
III. The interpretation which Daniel gave of these mystic
characters, which was so far from easing the king of his fears that we may
suppose it increased them rather. Daniel was now in years, and Belshazzar was
young; and therefore he seems to take a greater liberty of dealing plainly and
roundly with him than he had done upon the like occasions with Nebuchadnezzar.
In reproving any man, especially great men, there is need of wisdom to consider
all circumstances; for they are the reproofs of instruction that are the
way of life. In Daniel's discourse here,
1. He undertakes to read the writing which gave them this alarm,
and to show them the interpretation of it, v. 17. He slights the offer he made
him of rewards, is not pleased that it was mentioned, for he is not one of those
that divine for money; what gratuities Nebuchadnezzar gave him afterwards
he gladly accepted, but he scorned to bargain for them, or to read the writing
to the king for and in consideration of such and such honours promised him.
No: "Let thy gifts be to thyself, for they will not be long thine,
and give thy fee to another, to any of the wise men whom thou wouldst
have most wished to earn it; I value it not." Daniel sees his kingdom now
at its last gasp, and therefore looks with contempt upon his gifts and rewards.
And thus should we despise all the gifts and rewards that this world can give
did we see, as we may by faith, its final period hastening on. Let it give its
perishing gifts to another; there are better gifts which we have our eyes and
hearts upon; but let us do our duty in the world, do it all the real service we
can, read God's writing to it in a profession of religion, and by an agreeable
conversation make known the interpretation of it, and then trust God for his
gifts, his rewards, in comparison with which all the world can give is mere
trash and trifles.
2. He largely recounts to the king God's dealings with his
father Nebuchadnezzar, which were intended for instruction and warning to him,
v. 18, 21. This is not intended for a flourish or an amusement, but is a
necessary preliminary to the interpretation of the writing. Note, That we may
understand aright what God is doing with us, it is of use to us to review what
he has done with others.
(1.) He describes the great dignity and power to which the
divine Providence had advanced Nebuchadnezzar, v. 18, 19. He had a kingdom,
and majesty, and glory, and honour, for aught we know, above what any
heathen prince ever had before him; he thought that he got his glory by his own
extraordinary conduct and courage, and ascribed his successes to a projecting
active genius of his own; but Daniel tells him who now enjoyed what he had
laboured for that it was the most high God, the God of gods and Lord of kings
(as Nebuchadnezzar himself had called him), that gave him that kingdom,
that vast dominion, that majesty wherewith he presided in the affairs of it, and
that glory and honour which by his prosperous management he acquired.
Note, Whatever degree of outward prosperity any arrive at, they must own that it
is of God's giving, not their own getting. Let it never be said, My might,
and the power of my hand, have gotten me this wealth, this preferment;
but let it always be remembered that it is God that gives men power to get
wealth, and gives success to their endeavours. Now the power which God gave
to Nebuchadnezzar is here described to be very great in respect both of ability
and of authority. [1.] His ability was so strong that it was irresistible; such
was the majesty that God gave him, so numerous were the forces he had at
command, and such an admirable dexterity he had at commanding them, that, which
way soever his sword turned, it prospered. He could captivate and subdue nations
by threatening them, without striking a stroke, for all people trembled and
feared before him, and would compound with him for their lives upon any
terms. See what force is, and what the fear of it does. It is that by which the
brutal part of the world, even of the world of mankind, both governs and is
governed. [2.] His authority was so absolute that it was uncontrollable. The
power which was allowed him, which descended upon him, or which, at least, he
assumed, was without contradiction, was absolute and despotic, none shared with
him either in the legislative or in the executive part of it. In dispensing
punishments he condemned or acquitted at pleasure: Whom he would he slew, and
whom he would he saved alive, though both were equally innocent or equally
guilty. The jus vitae et necis—the power of life and death was entirely
in his hand. In dispensing rewards he granted or denied preferment at pleasure: Whom
he would he set up, and whom he would he put down, merely for a humour, and
without giving a reason so much as to himself; but it is all ex mero motu—of
his own good pleasure, and stat pro ratione voluntas—his will stands
for a reason. Such was the constitution of the eastern monarchies, such the
manner of their kings.
(2.) He sets before him the sins which Nebuchadnezzar had been
guilty of, whereby he had provoked God against him. [1.] He behaved insultingly
towards those that were under him, and grew tyrannical and oppressive. The
description given of his power intimates his abuse of his power, and that he was
directed in what he did by humour and passion, not by reason and equity; so that
he often condemned the innocent and acquitted the guilty, both which are an abomination
to the Lord. He deposed men of merit and preferred unworthy men, to the
great detriment of the public, and for this he was accountable to the most high
God, that gave him his power. Note, It is a very hard and rare thing for men to
have an absolute arbitrary power, and not to make an ill use of it. Camden has a
distich of Giraldus, wherein he speaks of it as a rare instance, concerning our
king Henry II of England, that never any man had so much power and did so little
hurt with it.
Glorior hoc uno, quod nunquam vidimus unum,
Nec potuisse magis, nec nocuisse minus—
Of him I can say, exulting, that with the same power
to do harm no one was ever more inoffensive.
But that was not all. [2.] He behaved insolently towards the God
above him, and grew proud and haughty (v. 20): His heart was lifted up,
and there his sin and ruin began; his mind was hardened in pride,
hardened against the commands of God and his judgments; he was willful and
obstinate, and neither the word of God nor his rod made any lasting impression
upon him. Note, Pride is a sin that hardens the heart in all other sin and
renders the means of repentance and reformation ineffectual.
(3.) He reminds him of the judgments of God that were brought
upon him for his pride and obstinacy, how he was deprived of his reason, and so deposed
from his kingly throne (v. 20), driven from among men, to dwell
with the wild asses, v. 21. He that would not govern his subjects by rules
of reason had not reason sufficient for the government himself. Note, Justly
does God deprive men of their reason when they become unreasonable and will not
use it, and of their power when they become oppressive and use it ill. He
continued like a brute till he knew and embraced that first principle of
religion, That the most high God rules. And it is rather by religion than
reason that man is distinguished from, and dignified above, the beasts; and it
is more his honour to be a subject to the supreme Creator than to be lord of the
inferior creatures. Note, Kings must know, or shall be made to know, that the
most high God rules in their kingdoms (that is an imperium in imperio—an
empire within an empire, not to be excepted against), and that he appoints
over them whomsoever he will. As he makes heirs, so he makes princes.
3. In God's name, he exhibits articles of impeachment against
Belshazzar. Before he reads him his doom, from the hand-writing on the wall, he
shows him his crime, that God may be justified when he speaks, and clear when
he judges. Now that which he lays to his charge is, (1.) That he had not
taken warning by the judgments of God upon his father (v. 22): Thou his son,
O Belshazzar! hast not humbled thy heart, though thou knewest all this.
Note, It is a great offence to God if our hearts be not humbled before him to
comply both with his precepts and with his providences, humbled by repentance,
obedience, and patience; nay, he expects from the greatest of men that their
hearts should be humbled before him, by an acknowledgment that, great as they
are, to him they are accountable. And it is a great aggravation of the
unhumbledness of our hearts when we know enough to humble them but do not
consider and improve it, particularly when we know how others have been broken
that would not bend, how others have fallen that would not stoop, and yet we
continue stiff and inflexible. It makes the sin of children the more heinous if
they tread in the steps of their parents' wickedness, though they have seen
how dearly it has cost them, and how pernicious the consequences of it have
been. Do we know this, do we know all this, and yet are we not humbled? (2.)
That he had affronted God more impudently than Nebuchadnezzar himself had done,
witness thv. 23): "Thou hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of
heaven, hast swelled with rage against him, and taken up arms against his
crown and dignity, in this particular instance, that thou hast profaned the vessels
of his house, and made the utensils of his sanctuary instruments of thy
iniquity, and, in an actual designed contempt of him, hast praised the gods
of silver and gold, which see not, nor hear, nor know anything, as if they
were to be preferred before the God that sees, and hears, and knows every thing."
Sinners that are resolved to go on in sin are well enough pleased with gods that
neither see, nor hear, nor know, for then they may sin securely; but they
will find, to their confusion, that though those are the gods they choose those
are not the gods they must be judged by, but one to whom all things are naked
and open. (3.) That he had not answered the end of his creation and
maintenance: The God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways,
hast thou not glorified. This is a general charge, which stands good against
us all; let us consider how we shall answer it. Observe, [1.] Our dependence
upon God as our creator, preserver, benefactor, owner, and ruler; not only from
his hand our breath was at first, but in his hand our breath is still; it
is he that holds our souls in life, and, if he take away our breath,
we die. Our times being in his hand, so is our breath, by which our
times are measured. In him we live, and move, and have our being; we live
by him, live upon him, and cannot live without him. The way of man is not in
himself, not at his own command, at his own disposal, but his are all our
ways; for our hearts are in his hand, and so are the hearts of all men, even
of kings, who seem to act most as free-agents. [2.] Our duty to God, in
consideration of this dependence; we ought to glorify him, to devote ourselves
to his honour and employ ourselves in his service, to make it our care to please
him and our business to praise him. [3.] Our default in this duty,
notwithstanding that dependence; we have not done it; for we have all sinned,
and come short of the glory of God. This is the indictment against
Belshazzar; there needs no proof, it is made good by the notorious evidence of
the fact, and his own conscience cannot but plead guilty to it. And therefore,
4. He now proceeds to read the sentence, as he found it written
upon the wall: "Then" (says Daniel) "when thou hast come to
such a height of impiety as thus to trample upon the most sacred things, then
when thou wast in the midst of thy sacrilegious idolatrous feast, then was the
part of the hand, the writing fingers, sent from him, from that God
whom thou didst so daringly affront, and who had borne so long with thee, but
would bear no longer; he sent them, and this writing, thou now
seest, was written, v. 24. It is he that now writes bitter things
against thee, and makes thee to possess thy iniquities," Job
13:26. Note, As the sin of sinners is written in the book of God's
omniscience, so the doom of sinners is written in the book of God's law; and
the day is coming when those books shall be opened, and they shall be
judged by them. Now the writing was, Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin, v. 25.
It is well that we have an authentic exposition of these words annexed, else we
could make little of them, so concise are they; the signification of them is, He
has numbered, he has weighed, and they divide. The Chaldean wise men,
because they knew not that there is but one God only, could not understand who
this He should be, and for that reason (some think) the writing puzzled
them. (1.) Mene; that is repeated, for the thing is certain—Mene,
mene; that signifies, both in Hebrew and Chaldee, He has numbered and
finished, which Daniel explains thus (v. 26): "God has numbered thy
kingdom, the years and days of the continuance of it; these were numbered in
the counsel of God, and now they are finished; the term has expired for and
during which thou wast to hold it, and now it must be surrendered. Here is an
end of thy kingdom." (2.) Tekel; that signifies, in Chaldee, Thou
art weighed, and, in Hebrew, Thou art too light. So Dr. Lightfoot.
For this king and his actions are weighed in the just and unerring balances of
divine equity. God does as perfectly know his true character as the goldsmith
knows the weight of that which he has weighed in the nicest scales. God does not
give judgment against him till he has first pondered his actions, and considered
the merits of his case. "But thou art found wanting, unworthy to
have such a trust lodged in thee, a vain, light, empty man, a man of no weight
or consideration." (3.) Upharsin, which should be rendered, and
Pharsin, or Peres.Parsin, in Hebrew, signifies the Persians;
Paresin, in Chaldee, signifies dividing; Daniel puts both together
(v. 28): "Thy kingdom is divided, is rent from thee, and given to
the Medes and Persians, as a prey to be divided among them." Now this
may, without any force, be applied to the doom of sinners. Mene, Tekel,
Peres, may easily be made to signify death, judgment, and hell.
At death, the sinner's days are numbered and finished; after
death the judgment, when he will be weighed in the balance and found wanting;
and after judgment the sinner will be cut asunder, and given as a prey to
the devil and his angels. Daniel does not here give Belshazzar such advice and
encouragement to repent as he had given Nebuchadnezzar, because he saw the
decree had gone forth and he would not be allowed any space to repent.
One would have thought that Belshazzar would be exasperated
against Daniel, and, seeing his own case desperate, would be in a rage against
him. But he was so far convicted by his own conscience of the reasonableness of
all he said that he objected nothing against it; but, on the contrary, gave
Daniel the reward he promised him, put on him the scarlet gown and the gold
chain, and proclaimed him the third ruler in the kingdom (v. 29),
because he would be as good as his word, and because it was not Daniel's fault
if the exposition of the hand-writing was not such as he desired. Note, Many
show great respect to God's prophets who yet have no regard to his word.
Daniel did not value these titles and ensigns of honour, yet would not refuse
them, because they were tokens of his prince's good-will: but we have reason
to think that he received them with a smile, foreseeing how soon they would all
wither with him that bestowed them. They were like Jonah's gourd, which came
up in a night and perished in a night, and therefore it was folly for him to be exceedingly
glad of them.
Here is, 1. The death of the king. Reason enough he had to
tremble, for he was just falling into the hands of the king of terrors,
v. 30. In that night, when his heart was merry with wine, the besiegers
broke into the city, aimed at the palace; there they found the king, and gave
him his death's wound. He could not find any place so secret as to conceal
him, or so strong as to protect him. Heathen writers speak of Cyrus's taking
Babylon by surprise, with the assistance of two deserters that showed him the
best way into the city. And it was foretold what a consternation it would be to
the court, Jer. 51:11, 39. Note, Death comes as a snare upon those whose hearts
are overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness. 2. The transferring of the
kingdom into other hands. From the head of gold we now descend to the breast and
arms of silver. Darius the Mede took the kingdom in partnership with, and
by the consent of, Cyrus, who had conquered it, v. 31. They were partners in war
and conquest, and so they were in dominion, ch. 6:28. Notice is taken of his
age, that he was now sixty-two years old, for which reason Cyrus, who was his
nephew, gave him the precedency. Some observe that being now sixty-two years
old, in the last year of the captivity, he was born in the eighth year of it,
and that was the year when Jeconiah was carried captive and all the nobles, etc.
See 2 Ki. 24:13-15. Just at that time when the most fatal stroke was given was
a prince born that in process of time should avenge Jerusalem upon Babylon, and
heal the wound that was now given. Thus deep are the counsels of God concerning
his people, thus kind are his designs towards them.
Daniel 5 Bible Commentary
Matthew Henry Bible Commentary (complete)
The destruction of the kingdom of Babylon had been long and often foretold when it was at a distance; in this chapter we have it accomplished, and a prediction of it the very same night that it was accomplished. Belshazzar now reigned in Babylon; some compute he had reigned seventeen years, others but three; we have here the story of his exit and the period of his kingdom. We must know that about two years before this Cyrus king of Persia, a growing monarch, came against Babylon with a great army; Belshazzar met him, fought him, and was routed by him in a pitched battle. He and his scattered forces retired into the city, where Cyrus besieged them. They were very secure, because the river Euphrates was their bulwark, and they had twenty years; provision in the city; but in the second year of the siege he took it, as is here related. We have in this chapter, I. The riotous, idolatrous, sacrilegious feast which Belshazzar made, in which he filled up the measure of his iniquity (v. 1-4). II. The alarm given him in the midst of his jollity by a hand-writing on the wall, which none of his wise men could read or tell him the meaning of (v. 5-9). III. The interpretation of the mystical characters by Daniel, who was at length brought in to him, and dealt plainly with him, and showed him his doom written (v. 10-28). IV. The immediate accomplishment of the interpretation in the slaying of the king and seizing of the kingdom (v. 30, 31).
Verses 1-9
We have here Belshazzar the king very gay, but all of a sudden very gloomy, and in straits in the fulness of his sufficiency. See how he affronts God, and God affrights him; and wait what will be the issue of this contest; and whether he that hardened his heart against God prospered.
I. See how the king affronted God, and put contempt upon him. He made a great feast, or banquet of wine; probably it was some anniversary solemnity, in honour off his birth-day or coronation-day, or in honour of some of their idols. Historians say that Cyrus, who was now with his army besieging Babylon, knew of this feast, and presuming that they then would be off their guard, somno vinoque sepulti—buried in sleep and wine, took that opportunity to attack the city, and so with the more ease made himself master of it. Belshazzar upon this occasion invited a thousand of his lords to come and drink with him. Perhaps they were such as had signalized themselves in defense of the city against the besiegers; or these were his great council of war, with whom, when they had well drunk, he would advise what was further to be done. And they were to look upon it as a great favour that he drank wine before them, for it was the pride of those eastern kings to be seldom seen. He drank wine before them, for he made this feast, as Ahasuerus did, to show the honour of his majesty. Now in this sumptuous feast, 1. He put an affront upon the providence of God and bade defiance to his judgments. His city was now besieged; a powerful enemy was at his gates; his life and kingdom lay at stake. In all this the hand of the Lord had gone out against him, and by it he called him to weeping, and mourning, and girding with sackcloth. God's voice cried in the city, as Jonah to Nineveh, Yet forty days, or fewer, and Babylon shall be destroyed. He should therefore, like the king of Nineveh, have proclaimed a fast; but, as one resolved to walk contrary to God, he proclaims a feast, and behold joy and gladness, slaying oxen, killing sheep, eating flesh, and drinking wine, as if he dared the Almighty to do his worst, Isa. 22:12, 13. To show how little fear he had of being forced to surrender, for want of provisions, he spent thus extravagantly. Note, Security and sensuality are sad presages of approaching ruin. Those that will not be warned by judgments of God may expect to be wounded by them. 2. He put an affront upon the temple of God, and bade defiance to his sanctuary, v. 2. While he tasted the wine, he commanded to bring the vessels of the temple, that they might drink in them. When he tasted how rich and fine the wine was, "O," said he, "it is a pity but we should have holy vessels to drink such delicious wine as this in," which was looked upon as a piece of wit, and, to carry on the humour, the vessels of the temple were immediately sent for. Nay, there seems to have been something more in it than a frolic, and that it was done in a malicious despite to the God of Israel. The heart of his people was very much upon these sacred vessels, as appears from Jer. 27:16, 18. Their principal care, at their return, was about these, Ezra 1:7. Now, we may suppose, they had an expectation of their deliverance approaching, reckoning the seventy years of their captivity near a period; and some of them might perhaps have given out some words to that purport, that shortly they should have the vessels of the sanctuary restored to them, in defiance of which Belshazzar here proclaims them to be his own, will keep them in store no longer, but will make use of them among his own plate. Note, That mirth is sinful indeed, and fills the measure of men's iniquity apace, which profanes sacred things and jests with them. This ripened Babylon for ruin—that no songs would serve them but the songs of Zion (Ps. 137:3), no vessels but the vessels of the sanctuary. Let those who thus sacrilegiously alienate what is dedicated to God and his honour know that he will not be mocked. 3. He put an affront upon God himself, and bade defiance to his deity; for they drank wine, and praised the gods of gold and silver, v. 4. They gave that glory to images, the work of their own hands and creatures of their own fancy, which is due to the true and living God only. They praised them either with sacrifices offered to them or with songs sung in honour of them. When their heads were giddy, and their hearts merry, with wine, they were in the fittest frame to praise the gods of gold and silver, wood and stone; for one would think that men in their senses, who had the command of a clear and sober thought, could not be guilty of so gross an absurdity; they must be intoxicated ere they could be so infatuated. Drunken worshippers, who are not men, but beasts, are the most proper for the service of dunghill deities, that are not gods, but devils. They have erred through wine, Isa. 27:7. They drank wine, and praised their idol-gods, as if they had been the founders of their feast and the givers of all good things to them. Or, when they were drinking wine, they praised their gods by drinking healths to them; and the king drank wine before them (v. 1), that is, he began the health, first to this god, and then to the other, till they went through the bead-roll or farrago of them, those of wood and stone not excepted. Note, Immorality and impiety, vice and profaneness, strengthen the hands and advance the interests one of another. Drunken frolics were an introduction to idolatry, and then idolatrous healths were a shoeing-horn to further drunkenness.
II. See how God affrighted the king, and struck a terror upon him. Belshazzar and his lords are in the midst of their revels, the cups going round apace, and all upon the merry pin, drinking confusion, it may be, to Cyrus and his army, and roaring out huzzas, in confidence of the speedy raising of the siege; but the hour had come when that must be fulfilled which had been long ago said of the king of Babylon, when his city should be besieged by the Persians and Medes, Isa. 21:2-4. The night of my pleasures has he turned into fear to me. The mirth of this ball at court must be spoiled, and a damp cast upon their jollity, though the king himself be master of the revels; immediately, when God speaks the word, we have him and all his guests in the utmost confusion, and the end of their mirth is heaviness. 1. There appear the fingers of a man's hand writing on the plaster of the wall, before the king's face (v. 5), "the angel Gabriel," say the rabbin, "directing these fingers and writing by them." "That divine hand" (says a rabbi of our own, Dr. Lightfoot) "that had written the two tables for a law to his people now writes the doom of Babel and Belshazzar upon the wall." Here was nothing sent to frighten them which made a noise, or threatened their lives, no claps of thunder nor flashes of lightning, no destroying angel with his sword drawn in his hand, only a pen in the hand, writing upon the wall, over-against the candlestick, where they might all see it by the light of their own candle. Note, God's written word is sufficient to put the proudest boldest sinners into a fright, when he is pleased to give it the setting on. The king saw the part of the hand that wrote, but saw not the person whose hand it was, which made the thing more frightful. Note, What we see of God, the part of the hand that writes in the book of the creatures and the book of the scriptures (Lo, these are parts of his ways, Job 26:14), may serve to possess us with awful thoughts concerning that of God which we do not see. If this be the finger of God, what is his arm made bare? And what is he? 2. The king is immediately seized with a panic fear (v. 6): His countenance was changed (his colour went and came); the joints of his loins were loosed, so that he had no strength in them, but was struck with a pain in his back, as is usual in a great fright; his knees smote one against another, so violently did he tremble like an aspen leaf. But what was the matter? Why is he in such a fright? He perceives not what is written, and how does he know but it may be some happy presage of deliverance to him and to his kingdom? But the business was his thoughts troubled him; his own guilty conscience flew in his face, and told him that he had no reason to expect any good news from Heaven, and that the hand of an angel could write nothing but terror to him. He that knew himself liable to the justice of God immediately concluded this to be an arrest in his name, a summons to appear before him. Note, God can soon awaken the most secure and make the heart of the stoutest sinner to tremble; and there needs no more to do it than to let loose his own thoughts upon him; they will soon play the tyrant, and give him trouble enough. 3. The wise men of Babylon are immediately called in, to see what they can make of this writing upon the wall, v. 7. The king cried aloud, as one in haste, as one in earnest, to bring the whole college of magicians, to try if they can read this writing, and show the interpretation of it; for the king and all his lords cannot pretend to it, it is out of their sphere. The study of divine revelation (such as they had, or thought they had) and converse with the world of spirits were by the heathen confined to one profession, and no other meddled with it; but what is written to us by the finger of God is legible to all; whoever will may read the mind of God in the scriptures. To engage these wise men to exert the utmost of their skill in this matter, and provoke them to an emulation in the attempt, he promised that whoever would give him a satisfactory account of this writing should be dignified with the highest honours of the court. He knew what these pretenders to wisdom aimed at, and what would please them, and therefore promised them a scarlet robe and a gold chain, glorious things in the eyes of those that know no better. Nay, he should be primus par regni—chief minister of state, the third ruler in the kingdom, next to the king and his heir apparent. 4. The king is disappointed in his expectations from them; they can none of them read the writing, much less interpret it (v. 8), which increases the king's confusion, v. 9. He likes the thing yet worse and worse, and fears that mischief is towards him. His lords also, that had been partners with him in his jollity, are now sharers with him in his terrors; they also were astonished at their wits' end; and neither their numbers nor their refreshment by wine would serve to keep up their spirits. The reason why the wise men could not read the writing was not because it was written in any language or characters unknown to them, but God either cast a mist before their eyes or put such confusion upon their spirits that they could not read it, that the honour of expounding this mystical writing might be reserved for Daniel. Note, The terror of an awakened convinced conscience may justly be increased by the utter insufficiency of all creatures to give it ease or satisfaction.
Verses 10-29
Here is, I. The information given to the king, by the queen-mother, concerning Daniel, how fit he was to be consulted in this difficult case. It is supposed that this queen was the widow of Evil-Merodach, and was that famous Nitocris whom Herodotus mentions as a woman of extraordinary prudence. She was not present at the feast, as the king's wives and concubines were (v. 2); it was not agreeable to her age and gravity to keep a merry night. But, tidings of the fright which the king and his lords were put into being brought to her apartment, she came herself to the banqueting-house, to recommend to the king a physician for his melancholy. She entreated him not to be discouraged by the insufficiency of his wise men to solve this riddle, for that there was a man in his kingdom that had more than once helped his grandfather at such a dead lift, and, no doubt, could help him, v. 11, 12. She could not undertake to read the writing herself, but directed him to one that could; let Daniel be called now, who should have been called first. Now observe, 1. The high character she gives of Daniel: He is a man in whom is the spirit of the holy gods, who has something in him more than human, not only the spirit of a man, which, in all, is the candle of the Lord, but a divine spirit. According to the language of her country and religion, she could not give a higher encomium of any man; she speaks honourably of him as a man that had, (1.) An admirably good head: Light, and understanding, and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods, were found in him. Such an insight had he into things secret, and such a foresight of things to come, that it was evident he was divinely inspired; he had knowledge and understanding beyond all the other wise men for interpreting dreams, explaining enigmas or hard sentences, untying knots, and resolving doubts. Solomon had a wonderful sagacity of this kind; but it should seem that in these things Daniel had more of an immediate divine direction. Behold, a greater than Solomon himself is here. Yet what was the wisdom of them both compared with the treasures of wisdom hidden in Christ? (2.) He had an admirably good heart: An excellent spirit was found in him, which was a great ornament to his wisdom and knowledge, and qualified him to receive that gift; for God gives to a man that is good in his sight wisdom, and knowledge, and joy. He was of a humble, holy, heavenly spirit, had a devout and gracious spirit, a spirit of zeal for the glory of God and the good of men. This was indeed an excellent spirit. 2. The account she gives of the respect that Nebuchadnezzar had for him; he was much in his favour, and was preferred by him: "The king thy father" (that is, thy grandfather, but even to many generations Nebuchadnezzar might well be called the father of that royal family, for he it was that raised it to such a pitch of grandeur), "the king, I say, thy father, made him master of the magicians." Perhaps Belshazzar had sometimes, in his pride, spoken slightly of Nebuchadnezzar, and his politics, and the methods of his government, and the ministers he employed, and thought himself wiser than he; and therefore his mother harps upon that. "The king, I say, thy father, to whose good management all thou hast owing, he pronounced him chief of, and gave him dominion over, all the wise men of Babylon, and named him Belteshazzar, according to the name of his god, thinking thereby to put honour upon him;" but Daniel, by constantly making use of his Jewish name himself (which he resolved to keep, in token of his faithful adherence to his religion), had worn out that name; only the queen-dowager remembered it, otherwise he was generally called Daniel. Note, It is a very good office to revive the remembrance of the good services of worthy men, who are themselves modest, and willing that they should be forgotten. 3. The motion she makes concerning him: Let Daniel be called, and he will show the interpretation. By this it appears that Daniel was now forgotten at court. Belshazzar was a stranger to him, knew not that he had such a jewel in his kingdom. With the new king there came in a new ministry, and the old one was laid aside. Note, There are a great many valuable men, and such as might be made very useful, that lie long buried in obscurity, and some that have done eminent services that live to be overlooked and taken no notice of; but, whatever men are, God is not unrighteous to forget the services done to his kingdom. Daniel, being turned out of his place, lived privately, and sought not any opportunity to come into notice again; yet he lived near the court and within call, though Babylon wasthe righteous shine forth out of obscurity, and before honour is humility.
II. The introducing of Daniel to the king, and his request to him to read and expound the writing. Daniel was brought in before the king, v. 13. He was now nearly ninety years of age, so that his years, and honours, and former preferments, might have entitled him to a free admission into the king's presence; yet he was willing to be conducted in, as a stranger, by the master of the ceremonies. Note, 1. The king asks, with an air of haughtiness: Art thou that Daniel who art of the children of the captivity? Being a Jew, and a captive, he was loth to be beholden to him if he could help it. 2. He tells him what an encomium he had heard of him (v. 14), that the spirit of the gods was in him; and he had sent for him to try whether he deserved so high a character or no. 3. He acknowledges that all the wise men of Babylon were baffled; they could not read this writing, nor show the interpretation, v. 16. But, 4. He promises him the same rewards that he had promised them if he would do it, v. 16. It was strange that the magicians, when now, and in Nebuchadnezzar's time, once and again, they were nonplussed, did not attempt something to save their credit; if they had with a good assurance said, "This is the meaning of such a dream, such a writing," who could disprove them? But God so ordered it that they had nothing at all to say, as, when Christ was born, the heathen oracles were struck dumb.
III. The interpretation which Daniel gave of these mystic characters, which was so far from easing the king of his fears that we may suppose it increased them rather. Daniel was now in years, and Belshazzar was young; and therefore he seems to take a greater liberty of dealing plainly and roundly with him than he had done upon the like occasions with Nebuchadnezzar. In reproving any man, especially great men, there is need of wisdom to consider all circumstances; for they are the reproofs of instruction that are the way of life. In Daniel's discourse here,
1. He undertakes to read the writing which gave them this alarm, and to show them the interpretation of it, v. 17. He slights the offer he made him of rewards, is not pleased that it was mentioned, for he is not one of those that divine for money; what gratuities Nebuchadnezzar gave him afterwards he gladly accepted, but he scorned to bargain for them, or to read the writing to the king for and in consideration of such and such honours promised him. No: "Let thy gifts be to thyself, for they will not be long thine, and give thy fee to another, to any of the wise men whom thou wouldst have most wished to earn it; I value it not." Daniel sees his kingdom now at its last gasp, and therefore looks with contempt upon his gifts and rewards. And thus should we despise all the gifts and rewards that this world can give did we see, as we may by faith, its final period hastening on. Let it give its perishing gifts to another; there are better gifts which we have our eyes and hearts upon; but let us do our duty in the world, do it all the real service we can, read God's writing to it in a profession of religion, and by an agreeable conversation make known the interpretation of it, and then trust God for his gifts, his rewards, in comparison with which all the world can give is mere trash and trifles.
2. He largely recounts to the king God's dealings with his father Nebuchadnezzar, which were intended for instruction and warning to him, v. 18, 21. This is not intended for a flourish or an amusement, but is a necessary preliminary to the interpretation of the writing. Note, That we may understand aright what God is doing with us, it is of use to us to review what he has done with others.
(1.) He describes the great dignity and power to which the divine Providence had advanced Nebuchadnezzar, v. 18, 19. He had a kingdom, and majesty, and glory, and honour, for aught we know, above what any heathen prince ever had before him; he thought that he got his glory by his own extraordinary conduct and courage, and ascribed his successes to a projecting active genius of his own; but Daniel tells him who now enjoyed what he had laboured for that it was the most high God, the God of gods and Lord of kings (as Nebuchadnezzar himself had called him), that gave him that kingdom, that vast dominion, that majesty wherewith he presided in the affairs of it, and that glory and honour which by his prosperous management he acquired. Note, Whatever degree of outward prosperity any arrive at, they must own that it is of God's giving, not their own getting. Let it never be said, My might, and the power of my hand, have gotten me this wealth, this preferment; but let it always be remembered that it is God that gives men power to get wealth, and gives success to their endeavours. Now the power which God gave to Nebuchadnezzar is here described to be very great in respect both of ability and of authority. [1.] His ability was so strong that it was irresistible; such was the majesty that God gave him, so numerous were the forces he had at command, and such an admirable dexterity he had at commanding them, that, which way soever his sword turned, it prospered. He could captivate and subdue nations by threatening them, without striking a stroke, for all people trembled and feared before him, and would compound with him for their lives upon any terms. See what force is, and what the fear of it does. It is that by which the brutal part of the world, even of the world of mankind, both governs and is governed. [2.] His authority was so absolute that it was uncontrollable. The power which was allowed him, which descended upon him, or which, at least, he assumed, was without contradiction, was absolute and despotic, none shared with him either in the legislative or in the executive part of it. In dispensing punishments he condemned or acquitted at pleasure: Whom he would he slew, and whom he would he saved alive, though both were equally innocent or equally guilty. The jus vitae et necis—the power of life and death was entirely in his hand. In dispensing rewards he granted or denied preferment at pleasure: Whom he would he set up, and whom he would he put down, merely for a humour, and without giving a reason so much as to himself; but it is all ex mero motu—of his own good pleasure, and stat pro ratione voluntas—his will stands for a reason. Such was the constitution of the eastern monarchies, such the manner of their kings.
(2.) He sets before him the sins which Nebuchadnezzar had been guilty of, whereby he had provoked God against him. [1.] He behaved insultingly towards those that were under him, and grew tyrannical and oppressive. The description given of his power intimates his abuse of his power, and that he was directed in what he did by humour and passion, not by reason and equity; so that he often condemned the innocent and acquitted the guilty, both which are an abomination to the Lord. He deposed men of merit and preferred unworthy men, to the great detriment of the public, and for this he was accountable to the most high God, that gave him his power. Note, It is a very hard and rare thing for men to have an absolute arbitrary power, and not to make an ill use of it. Camden has a distich of Giraldus, wherein he speaks of it as a rare instance, concerning our king Henry II of England, that never any man had so much power and did so little hurt with it.
Glorior hoc uno, quod nunquam vidimus unum,
Nec potuisse magis, nec nocuisse minus—
Of him I can say, exulting, that with the same power
to do harm no one was ever more inoffensive.
But that was not all. [2.] He behaved insolently towards the God above him, and grew proud and haughty (v. 20): His heart was lifted up, and there his sin and ruin began; his mind was hardened in pride, hardened against the commands of God and his judgments; he was willful and obstinate, and neither the word of God nor his rod made any lasting impression upon him. Note, Pride is a sin that hardens the heart in all other sin and renders the means of repentance and reformation ineffectual.
(3.) He reminds him of the judgments of God that were brought upon him for his pride and obstinacy, how he was deprived of his reason, and so deposed from his kingly throne (v. 20), driven from among men, to dwell with the wild asses, v. 21. He that would not govern his subjects by rules of reason had not reason sufficient for the government himself. Note, Justly does God deprive men of their reason when they become unreasonable and will not use it, and of their power when they become oppressive and use it ill. He continued like a brute till he knew and embraced that first principle of religion, That the most high God rules. And it is rather by religion than reason that man is distinguished from, and dignified above, the beasts; and it is more his honour to be a subject to the supreme Creator than to be lord of the inferior creatures. Note, Kings must know, or shall be made to know, that the most high God rules in their kingdoms (that is an imperium in imperio—an empire within an empire, not to be excepted against), and that he appoints over them whomsoever he will. As he makes heirs, so he makes princes.
3. In God's name, he exhibits articles of impeachment against Belshazzar. Before he reads him his doom, from the hand-writing on the wall, he shows him his crime, that God may be justified when he speaks, and clear when he judges. Now that which he lays to his charge is, (1.) That he had not taken warning by the judgments of God upon his father (v. 22): Thou his son, O Belshazzar! hast not humbled thy heart, though thou knewest all this. Note, It is a great offence to God if our hearts be not humbled before him to comply both with his precepts and with his providences, humbled by repentance, obedience, and patience; nay, he expects from the greatest of men that their hearts should be humbled before him, by an acknowledgment that, great as they are, to him they are accountable. And it is a great aggravation of the unhumbledness of our hearts when we know enough to humble them but do not consider and improve it, particularly when we know how others have been broken that would not bend, how others have fallen that would not stoop, and yet we continue stiff and inflexible. It makes the sin of children the more heinous if they tread in the steps of their parents' wickedness, though they have seen how dearly it has cost them, and how pernicious the consequences of it have been. Do we know this, do we know all this, and yet are we not humbled? (2.) That he had affronted God more impudently than Nebuchadnezzar himself had done, witness thv. 23): "Thou hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven, hast swelled with rage against him, and taken up arms against his crown and dignity, in this particular instance, that thou hast profaned the vessels of his house, and made the utensils of his sanctuary instruments of thy iniquity, and, in an actual designed contempt of him, hast praised the gods of silver and gold, which see not, nor hear, nor know anything, as if they were to be preferred before the God that sees, and hears, and knows every thing." Sinners that are resolved to go on in sin are well enough pleased with gods that neither see, nor hear, nor know, for then they may sin securely; but they will find, to their confusion, that though those are the gods they choose those are not the gods they must be judged by, but one to whom all things are naked and open. (3.) That he had not answered the end of his creation and maintenance: The God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified. This is a general charge, which stands good against us all; let us consider how we shall answer it. Observe, [1.] Our dependence upon God as our creator, preserver, benefactor, owner, and ruler; not only from his hand our breath was at first, but in his hand our breath is still; it is he that holds our souls in life, and, if he take away our breath, we die. Our times being in his hand, so is our breath, by which our times are measured. In him we live, and move, and have our being; we live by him, live upon him, and cannot live without him. The way of man is not in himself, not at his own command, at his own disposal, but his are all our ways; for our hearts are in his hand, and so are the hearts of all men, even of kings, who seem to act most as free-agents. [2.] Our duty to God, in consideration of this dependence; we ought to glorify him, to devote ourselves to his honour and employ ourselves in his service, to make it our care to please him and our business to praise him. [3.] Our default in this duty, notwithstanding that dependence; we have not done it; for we have all sinned, and come short of the glory of God. This is the indictment against Belshazzar; there needs no proof, it is made good by the notorious evidence of the fact, and his own conscience cannot but plead guilty to it. And therefore,
4. He now proceeds to read the sentence, as he found it written upon the wall: "Then" (says Daniel) "when thou hast come to such a height of impiety as thus to trample upon the most sacred things, then when thou wast in the midst of thy sacrilegious idolatrous feast, then was the part of the hand, the writing fingers, sent from him, from that God whom thou didst so daringly affront, and who had borne so long with thee, but would bear no longer; he sent them, and this writing, thou now seest, was written, v. 24. It is he that now writes bitter things against thee, and makes thee to possess thy iniquities," Job 13:26. Note, As the sin of sinners is written in the book of God's omniscience, so the doom of sinners is written in the book of God's law; and the day is coming when those books shall be opened, and they shall be judged by them. Now the writing was, Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin, v. 25. It is well that we have an authentic exposition of these words annexed, else we could make little of them, so concise are they; the signification of them is, He has numbered, he has weighed, and they divide. The Chaldean wise men, because they knew not that there is but one God only, could not understand who this He should be, and for that reason (some think) the writing puzzled them. (1.) Mene; that is repeated, for the thing is certain—Mene, mene; that signifies, both in Hebrew and Chaldee, He has numbered and finished, which Daniel explains thus (v. 26): "God has numbered thy kingdom, the years and days of the continuance of it; these were numbered in the counsel of God, and now they are finished; the term has expired for and during which thou wast to hold it, and now it must be surrendered. Here is an end of thy kingdom." (2.) Tekel; that signifies, in Chaldee, Thou art weighed, and, in Hebrew, Thou art too light. So Dr. Lightfoot. For this king and his actions are weighed in the just and unerring balances of divine equity. God does as perfectly know his true character as the goldsmith knows the weight of that which he has weighed in the nicest scales. God does not give judgment against him till he has first pondered his actions, and considered the merits of his case. "But thou art found wanting, unworthy to have such a trust lodged in thee, a vain, light, empty man, a man of no weight or consideration." (3.) Upharsin, which should be rendered, and Pharsin, or Peres. Parsin, in Hebrew, signifies the Persians; Paresin, in Chaldee, signifies dividing; Daniel puts both together (v. 28): "Thy kingdom is divided, is rent from thee, and given to the Medes and Persians, as a prey to be divided among them." Now this may, without any force, be applied to the doom of sinners. Mene, Tekel, Peres, may easily be made to signify death, judgment, and hell. At death, the sinner's days are numbered and finished; after death the judgment, when he will be weighed in the balance and found wanting; and after judgment the sinner will be cut asunder, and given as a prey to the devil and his angels. Daniel does not here give Belshazzar such advice and encouragement to repent as he had given Nebuchadnezzar, because he saw the decree had gone forth and he would not be allowed any space to repent.
One would have thought that Belshazzar would be exasperated against Daniel, and, seeing his own case desperate, would be in a rage against him. But he was so far convicted by his own conscience of the reasonableness of all he said that he objected nothing against it; but, on the contrary, gave Daniel the reward he promised him, put on him the scarlet gown and the gold chain, and proclaimed him the third ruler in the kingdom (v. 29), because he would be as good as his word, and because it was not Daniel's fault if the exposition of the hand-writing was not such as he desired. Note, Many show great respect to God's prophets who yet have no regard to his word. Daniel did not value these titles and ensigns of honour, yet would not refuse them, because they were tokens of his prince's good-will: but we have reason to think that he received them with a smile, foreseeing how soon they would all wither with him that bestowed them. They were like Jonah's gourd, which came up in a night and perished in a night, and therefore it was folly for him to be exceedingly glad of them.
Verses 30-31
Here is, 1. The death of the king. Reason enough he had to tremble, for he was just falling into the hands of the king of terrors, v. 30. In that night, when his heart was merry with wine, the besiegers broke into the city, aimed at the palace; there they found the king, and gave him his death's wound. He could not find any place so secret as to conceal him, or so strong as to protect him. Heathen writers speak of Cyrus's taking Babylon by surprise, with the assistance of two deserters that showed him the best way into the city. And it was foretold what a consternation it would be to the court, Jer. 51:11, 39. Note, Death comes as a snare upon those whose hearts are overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness. 2. The transferring of the kingdom into other hands. From the head of gold we now descend to the breast and arms of silver. Darius the Mede took the kingdom in partnership with, and by the consent of, Cyrus, who had conquered it, v. 31. They were partners in war and conquest, and so they were in dominion, ch. 6:28. Notice is taken of his age, that he was now sixty-two years old, for which reason Cyrus, who was his nephew, gave him the precedency. Some observe that being now sixty-two years old, in the last year of the captivity, he was born in the eighth year of it, and that was the year when Jeconiah was carried captive and all the nobles, etc. See 2 Ki. 24:13-15. Just at that time when the most fatal stroke was given was a prince born that in process of time should avenge Jerusalem upon Babylon, and heal the wound that was now given. Thus deep are the counsels of God concerning his people, thus kind are his designs towards them.