John Gill Commentary Daniel 5

Belshazzar the king made a great feast This king was not the immediate successor of Nebuchadnezzar, but Evilmerodach, (Jeremiah 52:31), who, according to Ptolemy's canon, reigned two years; then followed Neriglissar, his sister's husband, by whom he was slain, and who usurped the throne, and reigned four years; he died in the beginning of his fourth year, and left a son called Laborosoarchod, who reigned but nine months, which are placed by Ptolemy to his father's reign, and therefore he himself is not mentioned in the canon; and then followed this king, who by Ptolemy is called Nabonadius; by Berosus, Nabonnedus by Abydenus ^F21, Nabannidochus; by Herodotus ^F23, Labynitus; and by Josephus ^F24, Naboandelus, who, according to him, is the same with Belshazzar.

Whom some confound with the son of Neriglissar; others take him to be the same with Evilmerodach, because he here immediately follows Nebuchadnezzar, and is called his son, (Daniel 5:11Daniel 5:13Daniel 5:18), and others that he was a younger brother, so Jarchi and Theodoret; but the truth is, that he was the son of Evilmerodach, and grandson of Nebuchadnezzar, which agrees with the prophecy in (Jeremiah 27:7), for though Nebuchadnezzar is called his father, and he his son, (Daniel 5:2Daniel 5:11Daniel 5:13Daniel 5:18Daniel 5:22) this is said after the manner of the eastern nations, who used to call ancestors fathers, and their more remote posterity sons.

He had his name Belshazzar from the idol Bel, and may be rendered, "Bel's treasurer": though, according to Saadiah, the word signifies "a searcher of treasures", of his ancestors, or of the house of God. Hillerus translates it, "Bel has hidden". This king made a great feast; or "bread" ^F25, which is put for all provisions; it was great, both on account of plenty of food, variety of dishes, and number of guests, and those of the highest rank and quality.

On what account this feast was made is not easy to say; whether out of contempt of Cyrus and his army, by whom he was now besieged, and to show that he thought himself quite safe and secure in a city so well walled and fortified, and having in it such vast quantities of provision; or whether it was on account of a victory he had obtained that morning over the Medes and Persians, as Josephus Ben Gorion ^F26 relates; and therefore in the evening treated his thousand lords, who had been engaged in battle with him, and behaved well: though it seems to have been an anniversary feast; since, according to Xenophon and Herodotus, Cyrus knew of it before hand; either on account of the king's birthday, or in honour to his gods, particularly Shach, which was called the Sachaenan feast; (See Gill on Jeremiah 25:26) (See Gill on Jeremiah 51:41) which seems most likely, since these were praised at this time, and the vessels of the temple of God at Jerusalem profaned, (Daniel 5:2–4), this feast was prophesied of by Isaiah, (Isaiah 21:5) and by Jeremiah, (Jeremiah 51:39).

It had its name from Shach, one of their deities, of which (See Gill on Daniel 1:4) (See Gill on Daniel 1:7) the same with Belus or the sun. The feasts kept in honour of it were much like the Saturnalia of the Romans, or the Purim of the Jews; and were kept eleven days together, in which everyone did as he pleased, no order and decorum being observed; and, for five of those days especially, there was no difference between master and servant, yes, the latter had the government of the former; and they spent day and night in dancing and drinking, and in all excess of riot and revelling ^F1; and in such like manner the Babylonians were indulging themselves, when their city was taken by Cyrus, as the above writers assert ^F2; and from the knowledge Cyrus had of it, it appears to be a stated feast, and very probably on the above account.

According to Strabo ^F3, there was a feast of this name among the Persians, which was celebrated in honour of the goddess Anais, Diana, or the moon; and at whose altar they placed together Amanus and Anandratus, Persian demons; and appointed a solemn convention once a year, called Saca. Some say the occasion of it was this; that Cyrus making an expedition against the Sacse, a people in Scythia, pretended a flight, and left his tents full of all provisions, and especially wine, which they finding, filled themselves with it; when he returning upon them, finding some overcome with wine and stupefied, others overwhelmed with sleep, and others dancing and behaving in a bacchanalian way, they fell into his hands, and almost all of them perished; and taking this victory to be from the gods, he consecrated that day to the god of his country, and called it Sacaea; and wherever there was a temple of this deity, there was appointed a bacchanalian feast, in which men, and women appeared night and day in a Scythian habit, drinking together, and behaving to one another in a jocose and lascivious manner; but this could not be the feast now observed at Babylon, though it is very probable it was something of the like nature, and observed in much the same manner.

And was made "to a thousand of his lords"; his nobles, the peers of his realm, governors of provinces; such a number of guests Ptolemy king of Egypt feasted at one time of Pompey's army, as Pliny from Varro relates ^F4; but Alexander far exceeded, who at a wedding had nine (some say ten) thousand at his tables, and gave to everyone a cup of gold, to offer wine in honour of the gods ^F5; and Pliny reports ^F6 of one Pythius Bythinus, who entertained the whole army of Xerxes with a feast, even seven hundred and eighty eight thousand men.

And drank wine before the thousand; not that he strove with them who should drink most, or drank to everyone of them separately, and so a thousand cups, as Jacchiades suggests; but he drank in the presence of them, to show his condescension and familiarity; this being, as Aben Ezra observes, contrary to the custom of kings, especially of the eastern nations, who were seldom seen in public. This feast was kept in a large house or hall, as Josephus ^F7 says, afterwards called the banqueting house, (Daniel 5:10).

FOOTNOTES:

• F21: Apud Euseb. Evangel. l. 9. c. 41. p. 457.
• F23: Clio, sive l. 1. c. 188.
• F24: Antiqu. l. 10. c. 11. sect. 2.
• F25: (Mxl) "panem", Montanus, Piscator. All food is called bread, Jarchi in Lev. xxi. 17.
• F26: Hist. Hebr. l. 1. c. 5. p. 24.
• F1: Athenaei Deipnosophist. l. 14. c. 10. ex Beroso & Ctesia.
• F2: Xenophon. Cyropaedia, l. 7. c. 23. Herodot. Clio, sive l. 1. c. 191.
• F3: Geograph. l. 11. p. 352, 353.
• F4: Nat. Hist. l. 33. c. 10.
• F5: Plutarch. in Vit. Alexand.
• F6: Ut supra. (Nat. Hist. l. 33. c. 10.)
• F7: Antiqu. l. 10. c. 11. sect. 2.
• F20: Apud Joseph. contr. Apion. l. 1.

Belshazzar, while he tasted the wine
As he was drinking his cups, and delighted with the taste of the wine, and got merry with it: then he commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels, which his father
Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem ;

or, "by the advice of the wine" ^F8 , as Aben Ezra and Jarchi interpret it, by a personification; as if that dictated to him, and put him upon doing what follows; and which often puts both foolish and wicked things into the heads of men, and upon doing them:

what these vessels were, and the number of them, we learn from the delivery of them afterwards to the prince of Judah by Cyrus, (Ezra 1:9–11) , these were put into the temple of Bel by Nebuchadnezzar, (Daniel 1:2) and from there they were now ordered to be brought to the king's palace, and to the apartment where he and his nobles were drinking:

that the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, might
drink therein ;

Saadiah says, this day the seventy years' captivity ended; and so, in contempt of the promise and prophecy of it, he ordered the vessels to be brought out and drank in, to show that in vain the Jews expected redemption from it.

FOOTNOTES:

• F8: (armx Mejb) "vino dictante", Tigurine version.

Then they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of the
temple of the house of God which was at Jerusalem
That is, the servants to whom the orders were given fetched them from the temple of Bel, and brought them to the king's house; and though only mention is made of golden vessels, yet no doubt the silver ones were also brought, according to the king's command: and the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, drank in
them ;
by which they were profaned, being dedicated to holy uses, but now put to common use, and that by such impious persons; and who did it, not on account of the value and antiquity of these vessels, and in admiration of them, and to the honour of their festival; but in contempt of them, and in a profane and scurrilous way, as follows:

They drunk wine That is, out of the vessels of the temple at Jerusalem, and perhaps till they were drunk: and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone ; for they had gods of all these materials; (See Gill on Daniel 1:2),

and these they praised by offering sacrifices unto them; or rather by singing songs, and drinking healths, and by ascribing all their victories over the nations of the world to them; as that by their means they had got such large dominions, and such great wealth and treasures, and particularly these vessels of gold and silver; and so insulted and triumphed over the God of Israel, and defied the prophecies and promises of the deliverance of them that went under his name.

In the same hour came forth fingers of a man's hand
From heaven, as Jarchi; or they came forth as if they came out of the wall: this was done by the power of God, though it might be by the intervention or means of an angel; so Josephus Ben Gorion ^F9 says, that an angel came and wrote what follows; and Saadiah says it was Gabriel, called a man, (Daniel 11:21) , but this is conjecture; however, at the very time the king and his nobles were feasting and revelling, praising their idols, and reproaching the God of Israel, this wonderful phenomenon appeared: and wrote over against the candlestick, upon the plaster of the wall of
the king's palace ;

this candlestick was either upon the table, as Saadiah; or affixed to the wall, or hung as a chandelier in the midst of the hall; or, be it where it will, right over against it this hand appeared, and wrote, that, by the light of it, it might be clearly and distinctly seen: though Gussetius ^F11 thinks, not a candlestick, but a "buffet", is meant; where stood the drinking cups and vessels, and which he takes to be more agreeable to the signification of the word; and moreover observes, that it is not likely this feast should be made in the night, or at least it is not certain it was, or that it was yet night when this affair happened: however, this writing was upon the plaster of the wall, made of lime, and was white; and if the writing was with red colour, as Ben Gorion says, it was the more visible:

and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote ;
the back part of the hand; had he only seen a writing, but no hand writing it, he might have thought it was done by some present; but seeing a hand, and only part of one, or however not any other members of the body of a man, nor a man himself, it struck him with surprise, and he concluded at once there was something extraordinary in it; whether any other saw the hand besides himself is not certain; however, he saw it for whom it was particularly designed.

FOOTNOTES:

• F9: Hist. l. 1. c. 5. p. 24.
• F11: Ebr. Comment. p. 424.