Daniel 5

¹ Daniel recites this history of King Belshazzar, Evilmerodach's son, to show God's judgments against the wicked for the deliverance of his Church, and how the prophecy of Jeremiah was true, that they would be delivered after seventy years.Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wineThe kings of the east part then used to commonly sit alone, and disdained that any should sit in their company: and now to show his power, and how little he thought of his enemy, which then besieged Babylon, made a solemn banquet, and used excess in their company, which is meant here by drinking wine: thus the wicked are very lax in morals and negligent, when their destruction is at hand.before the thousand.

² Belshazzar, whiles he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which hisMeaning his grandfather.father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple which [was] in Jerusalem; that the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, might drink therein.

³ Then were brought the golden vessels, that were taken out of the Temple of the Lords house at Ierusalem, and the King and his princes, his wiues and his concubines dranke in them.

⁴ They drank wine, and praised theIn contempt of the true God they praise their idols, not that they thought that the gold or silver were gods, but that there was a certain strength and power in them to do them good, which is also the opinion of all idolaters.gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone.

⁵ In the same hour came forth fingers of a man's hand, and wrote overThat it might the better be seen.against the candlestick upon the plaister of the wall of the king's palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote.

⁶ Then the king's countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and hisSo he that before condemned God, was moved by this sight to tremble for fear of God's judgments.knees smote one against another.

⁷ The king cried aloud to bring inThus the wicked in their troubles seek many means, which draw them from God, because they do not seek for him who is the only comfort in all afflictions.the astrologers, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers. [And] the king spake, and said to the wise [men] of Babylon, Whosoever shall read this writing, and shew me the interpretation thereof, shall be clothed with scarlet, and [have] a chain of gold about his neck, and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom.

⁸ Then came all the Kings wise men, but they could neither reade the writing, nor shewe the King the interpretation.

⁹ Then was King Belshazzar greatly troubled, and his countenance was changed in him, and his princes were astonied.

¹⁰ [Now] theThat is, his grandmother, Nebuchadnezzar's wife, who because of her age was not at the feast before, but came there when she heard of this strange news.queen, by reason of the words of the king and his lords, came into the banquet house: [and] the queen spake and said, O king, live for ever: let not thy thoughts trouble thee, nor let thy countenance be changed:

¹¹ There is a man in thy kingdom, in whom [is] the spirit of the holy gods; and in the days of thy father light and understanding and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods, was found in him; whom the king Nebuchadnezzar thy father, the king, [I say], thy father, made master of theRead (Dan_4:6); and this declares that both this name was odious to him, and also he did not use these vile practises, because he was not among them when all were called.magicians, astrologers, Chaldeans, [and] soothsayers;

¹² Because a more excellent spirit, and knowledge, and vnderstanding (for hee did expound dreames, and declare hard sentences, and dissolued doubtes) were founde in him, euen in Daniel, whome the King named Belteshazzar: nowe let Daniel be called, and hee will declare the interpretation.

¹³ Then was Daniel brought before the King, and the King spake and sayd vnto Daniel, Art thou that Daniel, which art of the children of the captiuitie of Iudah, whom my father the King brought out of Iewrie?

¹⁴ I have even heard of thee, thatFor the idolaters thought that the angels had power as God, and therefore held them in the same estimation that they held God, thinking that the spirit of prophecy and understanding came from them.the spirit of the gods [is] in thee, and [that] light and understanding and excellent wisdom is found in thee.

¹⁵ Now therefore, wisemen and astrologians haue bene brought before me, that they should reade this writing, and shewe me the interpretation thereof: but they could not declare the interpretation of the thing.

¹⁶ Then heard I of thee, that thou couldest shewe interpretations, and dissolue doutes: nowe if thou canst reade the writing, and shew me the interpretation thereof, thou shalt be clothed with purple, and shalt haue a chaine of golde about thy necke, & shalt be the third ruler in the kingdome.

¹⁷ Then Daniel answered, and sayd before the King, Keepe thy rewards to thy selfe, and giue thy giftes to another: yet I will reade the writing vnto the King, and shew him the interpretation.

¹⁸ O thou king, the most high God gaveBefore he read the writing, he declares to the king his great ingratitude toward God, who could not be moved to give him the glory, considering God's wonderful work toward his grandfather, and so shows that he does not sin from ignorance but from malice.Nebuchadnezzar thy father a kingdom, and majesty, and glory, and honour:

¹⁹ And for the maiestie that he gaue him, all people, nations, and languages trembled, and feared before him: he put to death whom he would: he smote whome he would: whome he would he set vp, and whome he would he put downe.

²⁰ But when his heart was puft vp, and his minde hardened in pride, hee was deposed from his kingly throne, and they tooke his honour from him.

²¹ And hee was driuen from the sonnes of men, and his heart was made like the beastes, and his dwelling was with the wilde asses: they fed him with grasse like oxen, and his body was wet with the dewe of the heauen, till he knewe, that the most high God bare rule ouer the kingdome of men, and that he appointeth ouer it, whomsoeuer he pleaseth.

²² And thou his sonne, O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thine heart, though thou knewest all these things,

²³ But hast lift thy selfe vp against the Lorde of heauen, and they haue brought the vessels of his House before thee, and thou and thy princes, thy wiues and thy concubines haue drunke wine in them, and thou hast praysed the gods of siluer and golde, of brasse, yron, wood and stone, which neither see, neither heare, nor vnderstand: and the God in whose hand thy breath is and all thy wayes, him hast thou not glorified.

²⁴ After God had for such a long time deferred his anger, and patiently waited for your repentance.Then was the part of the hand sent from him; and this writing was written.

²⁵ And this [is] the writing that was written,This word is written twice because of the certainty of the thing, showing that God had most surely decided: it signifies also that God has appointed a term for all kingdoms, and that a miserable end will come on all that raise themselves against him.MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.

²⁶ This is the interpretation of the thing, Mene, God hath nombred thy kingdome, and hath finished it.

²⁷ Tekel, thou art wayed in the balance, and art found too light.

²⁸ Peres, thy kingdome is deuided, and giuen to the Medes and Persians.

²⁹ Then at the commaundement of Belshazzar they clothed Daniel with purple, and put a chaine of golde about his necke, and made a proclamation concerning him that he should be the third ruler in the kingdome.

³⁰ The same night was Belshazzar the King of the Caldeans slaine.

³¹ And DariusCyrus his son-in-law gave him this title of honour, even though Cyrus in effect had the dominion.the Median took the kingdom, [being] about threescore and two years old.