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The Book of Daniel Chapter 5 Phase Two Of The Image Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version of the Bible. Copyright © 1984-2001 by Dr. Richard W. Fry Published by Promise of Life Ministries. Printed in the United States Of America. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed, transmitted, transcribed, stored in a retrieval system or database, or translated into any human or computer language, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, magnetic, photocopying, recording, manual, or otherwise, or disclosed to third parties without the express written consent of the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review. Making copies of any part of this publication for any purpose other than your own personal use is a violation of United States copyright laws.
History between the death of Nebuchadnezzar and the commencement of the reign of Bel-Shazzar. Background On Events Between Chapters 4 & 5 Nabopolassar, the father of Nebuchadnezzar, as well as Nebuchadnezzar himself, had established a powerful kingdom. After the death of Nebuchadnezzar in 562 BC, the empire began to collapse. Amel-Marduk, Nebuchadnezzar’s son, began to reign in his place. Amel-Marduk was a very evil ruler. In fact, history refers to him as Evil-Marduk, or as Evil-Merodach. He was so detrimental to the empire that his brother-in-law, Neriglissar, had him killed. Neriglissar, the son-in-law of Nebuchadnezzar, took Amel-Marduk’s place. He ruled well, but soon died and was succeeded by his son, Labashi-Marduk, who was assassinated after nine months. Then, in 556 BC, a Babylonian nobleman, Nabonidus, took the throne.
Nabonidus was not of royal blood, but he had married Nebuchadnezzar’s second daughter, Nitocris. Although spent most of his time away from Babylon, he shared his reign (a co-regency) with his son, Bel-Shazzar thus making Nebuchadnezzar Bel-Shazzar’s grandfather.
Verse 1 Drank
Wine Before The Thousand: This is a nice way of saying that he got drunk.
Verse 2 His
Father: Actually, Nebuchadnezzar was Bel-Shazzar’s grandfather. There is no word in Chaldee or Hebrew for grandfather.
Might
Drink Therein: History speaks of Bel-Shazzar as, “impious and cruel,” and gives two examples of his cruelty and absence of morals.
Verse 4 Bel-Shazzar used the vessels from the temple of God to worship and praise his gods.
Using the vessels of God to drink to his gods places them above the most High God.
Verse 5 The king is challenged the same hour that he called for the vessels.
Verse 7 Third
Ruler In The Kingdom: The reason this interpreter is only elevated to the #3 spot is because Bel-Shazzar shares the kingdom in a co-regency with his father, Nabonidus. The highest position he can bestow is #3.
Verse 10 The queen is Nitocris, wife of Nabonidus and daughter of Nebuchadnezzar.
Banquet
House: Actually, this was a drinking, wenching house. A whorehouse when you come down to it.
Verse 13 Although Daniel was one of the chief ministers of state, who did “the king’s business” in the palace (Daniel 8:27), Bel-Shazzar seems to have Bel-Shazzar;Knew nothing about Daniel known nothing about him.
This serves to demonstrate that Bel-Shazzar;A weak and vicious prince Bel-Shazzar was a weak and vicious prince, who minded pleasure more than business.
Bel-Shazzar seems to have left the care of public affairs to his mother, Nitocris.
Verse 17 Let Thy Gifts: Daniel, on this occassion, behaved in a very different manner to Bel-Shazzar than he had formerly done to Nebuchadnezzar. Bel-Shazzar had, this very night, insulted the God of heaven in the most daring manner. Daniel, as God’s prophet, denounces sentence against him.
Compare this encounter with Daniel 4:19.
Verse 22 Daniel was as bold as Bel-Shazzar was stupid.
Verse 25 Mene,
Mene: He has numbered, he has numbered.
This is speaking of God as Bel-Shazzar’s supreme judge. But why is the term used twice. A possible answer presents itself in the remainder of Daniel’s declaration to Bel-Shazzar.
Tekel: He has weighed.
Undoubtedly God has weighed Ble-Shazzar’s actions against his obligations and Bel-Shazzar came up precariously short. If this is the case, the numbering done by God would be to number Bel-Shazzar’s obligations and his actions. This is one explaination as to why God used the term MENE twice. Another possibility is that God, because of the co-regency between Bel-Shazzar and his father, Nabonidus, numbered the obligations and actions of Nabonidus and, in an honest effort to tip the scales to their favor, numbered the obligations of Bel-Shazzar.
Upharsin: He has divided.
Because Bel-Shazzar’s actions did not match his obligations, he was found wanting. Owing to gross negligence in their duties as a leader, God was removing the kingdom from him, and from his father, that very night.
Verse 30 That night was October 13, 539 BC.
Verse 31 Darius
The Median: Babylon;Taken by Gobryas Babylon was taken by Gobryas;A general under Cyrus Gobryas, a general under Cyrus. The 6th chapter of Daniel actually begins here.
The obvious question that arises is, “Who is Dairus the Mede?” The Bible records three people as bearing the name Darius, they are:
Took: Darius the Mede did not actually “take” the kingdom. The kingdom was handed to him and he received it from his nephew, Cyrus.
The
Kingdom: The kingdoms of Media and Persia (or Parsee or Anshan) were closely related by marriage, which, the Median king, Astyages, had arranged.
Astyages, also known as Ahasuerus, had given his daughter, Mandane, to Cambyses, the king of Anshan, to be his wife. This marriage produced Cyrus the Great, king of Anshan, who later became king of Persia.
Astyages (Ahasuerus) also had a son, Darius Cyaxares II. He is both Darius the Mede in this passage and the uncle of Cyrus the Great. Cyrus left the throne of Babylon in the hands of Darius, his uncle, to further unite the 2 kingdoms. Cyrus then married the daughter of Darius.
At the death of Darius, approximately 2 years later, Cyrus united the 2 kingdoms and proclaimed himself the king of Persia. |
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