Dan 5:1-31

The Old Testament > Daniel > Chapter 5
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Outline and brief summary

The relationship chapter 5 to the rest of the book, and in particular to King Nebuchadnezzar's insanity in chapter 4, is discussed at Daniel. Chapter 5 can be outlined as follows:

D. King Belshazzar’s feast (Daniel 5)

a. the king praises idols while drinking from the temple vessels (1-4)

b. the hand writes on the wall, the magicians cannot interpret (5-9)

c. the prior king heeded the spirit of God in Daniel (10-12)

d. the king requests that Daniel interpret (13-17)

c. the prior king learned to respect God’s power (18-21)

a. but the current king has mocked God in favor of idols (22-23)

b. so the hand wrote the king’s sentence on the wall (24-31)

Nebuchadnezzar had an inflated ego (chapter 4), and he promoted idol worship (chapter 3), but he was to some degree teachable. Belshazzar, in contrast, learned nothing even after witnessing Nebuchadnezzar’s insanity (5:18-22), and he proceeds to publicly and specifically mock God (5:1-4, 22-23). Belshazzar’s sentence is therefore much heavier.

Belshazzar’s offense was to drink from the captured cups of the Jerusalem temple at a large royal banquet with a thousand guests, all the while praising his idols of metal and stone (5:1-4, 22-23). This act would be widely known, would symbolize that Babylon’s gods were greater than the God of Israel, and would thus bring the name of God into widespread disrepute. God’s response was equally newsworthy and left no doubt about the extent of his power. First he had a visible hand write on a wall in front of all the banquet guests (5:5). Then he confounded the Babylonian magicians and provided the interpretation only through his own prophet Daniel (5:7-8, 24-29). That interpretation clearly informed everyone that the impending fall of Babylon would be an expression of God’s power (5:26-28). Then, still that very same night, he slew the offending king and overthrew the offending kingdom (5:30-31).

The lesson of the two central stories in chapters 4 and 5 of Daniel is simple: Although a king of Babylon may be the most powerful person in the world, even his power is as nothing compared to the power of God who rules in the affairs of men.

Detailed discussion

Verse 29

Many scholars believe that the insanity in chapter 4 happened not to Nebuchadnezzar, but to Nabonidus, the actual father of Belshazzar. They also believe that Belzhazzar was not actually king, but was co-regent with his father Nabonidus, they being the first or highest two rulers. Daniel was for a very short time the third ruler (5:29).

Questions for further thought and study

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Footnotes

reflist

Additional sources and links

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