Daniel 5:30

In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain. IN THAT NIGHT WAS BELSHAZZAR ... SLAIN. Herodotus and Xenophon confirm Daniel as to the suddenness of the event. Cyrus diverted the Euphrates into a new channel, and, guided by two deserters, Gobryas and Gadatas, marched by the dry bed into the city, while the Babylonians were carousing at an annual feast to the gods. So also ; ; and ; . As to Belshazzar's being slain, cf. Isaiah 14:18; ;...

Here Daniel shortly relates how his prophecy was fulfilled that very night. As we have before explained it, a customary feast-day had occurred which the Babylonians celebrated annually, and on this occasion the city was betrayed by two satraps, whom Xenophon calls Gobryas and Gadatas. On this passage the Rabbis display both their impudence and ignorance; as, according to their usual habit, they babble with audacity about what they do not understand. They say the king was stabbed, because one of his guards heard the Prophet’s voice, and wished to execute that heavenly judgment; as if the sentence of God depended upon the will of a single heathen! We must pass by these puerile trifles and cling to the truth of history; for Belshazzar was seized in his own banqueting-room, when he was grossly intoxicated, with his nobles and concubines. Meanwhile, we must observe God’s wonderful kindness to...

18-31 Daniel reads Belshazzar's doom. He had not taken warning by the judgments upon Nebuchadnezzar. And he had insulted God. Sinners are pleased with gods that neither see, nor hear, nor know; but they will be judged by One to whom all things are open. Daniel reads the sentence written on the wall. All this may well be applied to the doom of every sinner. At death, the sinner's days are numbered and finished; after death is the judgment, when he will be weighed in the balance, and found wanting; and after judgment the sinner will be cut asunder, and given as a prey to the devil and his angels. While these things were passing in the palace, it is considered that the army of Cyrus entered the city; and when Belshazzar was slain, a general submission followed. Soon will every impenitent sinner find the writing of God's word brought to pass upon him, whether he is weighed in the balance of...

Verse Daniel 5:30. _IN THAT NIGHT WAS BELSHAZZAR - SLAIN._] Xenophon says, he was despatched by two lords, _Gadatas_ and _Gobrias_, who went over to Cyrus, to avenge themselves of certain wrongs which Belshazzar had done them. We have already seen that Cyrus entered the city by the bed of the Euphrates, which he had emptied, by cutting a channel for the waters, and directing them into the marshy country....

IN THAT NIGHT WAS BELSHAZZAR THE KING OF THE CHALDEANS SLAIN - On the taking of Babylon, and the consequences, see the notes at Isaiah 13:17; Isaiah 45:1. The account which Xenophon (“Cyrop.” vii. s.) gives of the taking of Babylon. and of the death of the king - though without mentioning his name, agrees so well with the statement here, that it may be regarded as a strong confirmation of its correctness. After describing the preparation made to take the city by draining off the waters of the Euphrates, so as to leave the channel dry beneath the walls for the amy of Cyrus, and after recording the charge which Cyrus gave to his generals Gadatas and Gobryas, he adds, “And indeed those who were with Gobryas said that it would not be wonderful if the gates of the palace should be

EXPOSITION DANIEL 5:1 BELSHAZZAR'S FEAST. In regard to this chapter the peculiar state of the Septuagint text has to be noted. At the beginning of the chapter there are three verses which seem to be either variant versions of the Septuagint text, or versions of a text which was different from that from which the Septuagint has been drawn. Throughout the chapter, further, there are traces of doublets. Most of these variations occur in the Syriac of Paulus Tellensis. DANIEL 5:1 BELSHAZZAR THE KING MADE A GREAT FEAST TO A THOUSAND OF HIS LORDS, AND DRANK WINE BEFORE THE THOUSAND. AS WE have just indicated, there are two versions in the Septuagint of several verses in this chapte

IN THAT NIGHT WAS BELSHAZZAR, THE KING OF THE CHALDEANS, SLAIN. Not by a servant of his own, as Jacchiades; or by an eunuch, one of his guards, as Saadiah and Joseph ben Gorion b; but by Gadales and Gobryas, who led Cyrus's army up the river Euphrates into the city of Babylon, its course being turned; the inhabitants of which being revelling and rioting, and the gates open, these men went up to the king's palace; the doors of which being opened by the king's orders to know what was the matter, they rushed in, and finding him standing up with his sword drawn in his own defence, they fell upon him, and slew him, and all about him, as Xenophon c relates; and this was the same night the feast was, and the handwriting was seen, read, and interpreted. This was after a reign of seventeen years; for so Josephus says d, that Baltasar or Belshazzar, in whose reign Babylon was taken, reigned sevent...

CHAPTER 5 BELSHAZZAR'S FEAST _ 1. Belshazzar's licentious feast (Daniel 5:1)_ 2. The writing on the wall (Daniel 5:5) 3. Forgotten Daniel (Daniel 5:10) 4. The message of Daniel (Daniel 5:17) Daniel 5:1. This feast of wickedness and blasphemy needs no further annotations. But it shows the great decline morally in the great Babylonian empire. Nebuchadnezzar, no doubt, had handled the golden vessels of the house of the Lord most carefully. He had stored them away, fearing to misuse them. The grandson sent for these vessels to drink

DANIEL 5. Belshazzar, who is represented as king of Babylon, makes a great feast, using the vessels which his father had brought to Babylon from the Temple at Jerusalem. During the feast the fingers of a man's hand are seen, writing on the wall. _Daniel_ explains the handwriting and tells the king that his days are numbered and that his kingdom is to be given to the Medes and Persians. That night the king is murdered and Darius the Mede assumes the throne. The motive of the chapter is again quite plain. Nebuchadnezzar's act of sacrilege has its parallel in the profanation of the Temple by Antiochus Epiphanes; and the fate of Belshazzar is depicted as an encouragement to the persecuted Jews of the Maccabean age. The chapter raises some very serious historical difficulties (see notes on Daniel 5:1 and Daniel 5:31

THAT NIGHT. Compare Daniel 5:1. BELSHAZZAR. See note on Daniel 5:2. THE CHALDEANS. Here spoken of in the national sense, not of. special class. See note on Daniel 1:4. SLAIN. Either by the Persians, or it may have been by assassination by one of his own followers, or accidentally in the tumult. Chaldee. _k_ etal, used of. violent death. Compare Daniel 5:19. This was on the third of the month Marchesvan. On the eleventh, Belshazzar's wife died, perhaps from grief. See _Encycl. Brit_, vol. iii, p. 711, 712, 11th (Cambridge) edition. See App-57....