51 King Belshazzar held a great feast for his one thousand nobles. The wine flowed freely. 2 Belshazzar, heady with the wine, ordered that the gold and silver chalices his father Nebuchadnezzar had stolen from God's Temple of Jerusalem be brought in so that he and his nobles, his wives and concubines, could drink from them. 3 When the gold and silver chalices were brought in, the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines, drank wine from them. 4 They drank the wine and drunkenly praised their gods made of gold and silver, bronze and iron, wood and stone. 5 At that very moment, the fingers of a human hand appeared and began writing on the lamp-illumined, whitewashed wall of the palace. When the king saw the disembodied hand writing away, 6 he went white as a ghost, scared out of his wits. His legs went limp and his knees knocked. 7 He yelled out for the enchanters, the fortunetellers, and the diviners to come. He told these Babylonian magi, "Anyone who can read this writing on the wall and tell me what it means will be famous and rich - purple robe, the great gold chain - and be third-in-command in the kingdom." 8 One after the other they tried, but could make no sense of it. They could neither read what was written nor interpret it to the king. 9 So now the king was really frightened. All the blood drained from his face. The nobles were in a panic.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Daniel 5:1-9
Commentary on Daniel 5:1-9
(Read Daniel 5:1-9)
Belshazzar bade defiance to the judgments of God. Most historians consider that Cyrus then besieged Babylon. Security and sensuality are sad proofs of approaching ruin. That mirth is sinful indeed, which profanes sacred things; and what are many of the songs used at modern feasts better than the praises sung by the heathens to their gods! See how God struck terror upon Belshazzar and his lords. God's written word is enough to put the proudest, boldest sinner in a fright. What we see of God, the part of the hand that writes in the book of the creatures, and in the book of the Scriptures, should fill us with awful thoughts concerning that part which we do not see. If this be the finger of God, what is his arm when made bare? And what is He? The king's guilty conscience told him that he had no reason to expect any good news from heaven. God can, in a moment, make the heart of the stoutest sinner to tremble; and there needs no more than to let loose his own thoughts upon him; they will give him trouble enough. No bodily pain can equal the inward agony which sometimes seizes the sinner in the midst of mirth, carnal pleasures, and worldly pomp. Sometimes terrors cause a man to flee to Christ for pardon and peace; but many cry out for fear of wrath, who are not humbled for their sins, and who seek relief by lying vanities. The ignorance and uncertainty concerning the Holy Scriptures, shown by many who call themselves wise, only tend to drive sinners to despair, as the ignorance of these wise men did.