_Belshazzar_ The son of Evil-merodach, and grandson of Nebuchadnezzar; _made a great feast to a thousand of his lords_ To the principal officers and great men of his court, and was himself present at it. This feast was made at a time of public rejoicing, being an annual festival, when the whole nigh... [ Continue Reading ]
_Belshazzar, while he tasted the wine When he grew warm with wine_, Houb. _Commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels_, &c. Triumphing thereby over God and his people. _They drank wine_ Made themselves merry with wine. _And praised the gods of gold_, &c. Praised, as gods, senseless images of g... [ Continue Reading ]
_In the same hour_ At the very time; _came forth fingers of a man's hand_ The likeness of a man's hand; _and wrote over against the candlestick_ The angel Gabriel, say the rabbins, directing this hand, and writing by it. Belshazzar seems to have filled up the measure of his iniquity, by this act of... [ Continue Reading ]
_The king cried aloud_ Manifesting at once great fear and great impatience; _to bring in the astrologers_, &c. In this he imitated Nebuchadnezzar his grandfather: it seems indeed to have been the general practice of these heathen kings, in all unexpected emergencies, to apply to these their wise men... [ Continue Reading ]
_Then came in all the king's wise men_ Ambitious of the honour, and desirous to gratify the king. _But they could not read the writing_ Because, says Houbigant, it was written in the ancient Samaritan characters, which were very unlike the Chaldean letters. Or perhaps only the initial letters, M.T.P... [ Continue Reading ]
_Now the queen_, &c. The king's wives and concubines sat with him at the feast, Daniel 5:2; therefore the person here called the queen, and said to come into the banqueting-house on this solemn occasion, must have been the queen-mother, the widow of Evil-merodach, named Nitocris, a lady, according t... [ Continue Reading ]
_Then was Daniel brought in before the king_ Daniel was now near ninety years of age; so that his years and honours, and former preferments, might have entitled him to a free admission into the king's presence; yet he was willing to be introduced, as a stranger, by the king's servants. _The king sai... [ Continue Reading ]
_O thou king_ Before Daniel reads the writing, he judges it proper to remind the king of God's dealings with Nebuchadnezzar, his progenitor, and of those remarkable instances of divine providence, both in mercy and in judgment, which were intended to be an instructive lesson, as to all princes that... [ Continue Reading ]
_But when his heart was lifted up_ The expressions here have a peculiar force, in marking the haughty insolence of King Nebuchadnezzar. His authority, as mentioned in the last verse, had been raised to the highest pitch; and on that account we find here that his mind was elated, and his spirit grown... [ Continue Reading ]
_Then was part of the hand sent from him_ The LXX. read, Δια τουτο εκ προσωπου αυτου απεσταλη αστραγαλος χειρος, και την γραφην ταυτην ενεταξε. “On this account hath the joint, or part of a hand, been sent from his presence, and hath formed this writing.” The reading in the Vulgate is to the same pu... [ Continue Reading ]
_Then commanded Belshazzar, and they clothed Daniel_ The king was so struck with his superior wisdom, and conceived himself so bound by the promise he had made before his nobles, that he ordered the prophet to be rewarded immediately with the honours he had promised him, which he was forced to accep... [ Continue Reading ]
_In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain_ He and all his nobles were slain together, in the midst of their feasting and revelling, as Herodotus, lib. 1., and Xenophon, inform us. The latter relates the story thus, _Cyropæd._, lib. 7. “That two deserters, Gadatas and Gobryas, hav... [ Continue Reading ]