Bible Commentaries
Daniel 5

Verses 1-31

The next scene is cast in the reign of Belshazzar. He had succeeded to the throne of his father, and was a man of profligate habits. No details are given of his reign, but a graphic picture is set before us of the carousal which revealed the man, and was the occasion of the final manifestation of his sin, and of the consequent judgment of God.

Having gathered together a thousand of his lords, his wives, and his concubines, he was guilty of the unutterable folly of using in drunken revelry the sacred vessels from the Temple of God. Thereupon appeared a mystic hand, writing on the wall the doom of himself and his kingdom.

As in the reign of his father, the wise men were unable to interpret the meaning of the writing; and Daniel, evidently not now near to the king, who seemed not to know him, was sent for.

Daniel was full of dignity and heroic loyalty to God. With clear, incisive words, he first declined all the king's gifts, and then charged him with his guilt. Continuing, he proclaimed God as seated high over the thrones of earth, and interpreted the writing as indicating God's knowledge of the kingdom, and His determination to end it and divide it among the Medes and Persians.