5:1 King Belshazzar 1 prepared a great banquet 2 for a thousand of his nobles, and he was drinking wine in front of 3 them all. 4 5:2 While under the influence 5 of the wine, Belshazzar issued an order to bring in the gold and silver vessels – the ones that Nebuchadnezzar his father 6 had confiscated 7 from the temple in Jerusalem 8 – so that the king and his nobles, together with his wives and his concubines, could drink from them. 9 5:3 So they brought the gold and silver 10 vessels that had been confiscated from the temple, the house of God 11 in Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles, together with his wives and concubines, drank from them. 5:4 As they drank wine, they praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.
5:25 “This is the writing that was inscribed: MENE, MENE, 12 TEQEL, and PHARSIN. 13 5:26 This is the interpretation of the words: 14 As for mene 15 – God has numbered your kingdom’s days and brought it to an end. 5:27 As for teqel – you are weighed on the balances and found to be lacking. 5:28 As for peres 16 – your kingdom is divided and given over to the Medes and Persians.”
5:29 Then, on Belshazzar’s orders, 17 Daniel was clothed in purple, a golden collar was placed around his neck, and he was proclaimed third ruler in the kingdom. 5:30 And in that very night Belshazzar, the Babylonian king, 18 was killed. 19
1 sn As is clear from the extra-biblical records, it was actually Nabonidus (ca. 556-539
2 sn This scene of a Babylonian banquet calls to mind a similar grandiose event recorded in Esth 1:3-8. Persian kings were also renowned in the ancient Near Eastern world for their lavish banquets.
3 sn The king probably sat at an elevated head table.
4 tn Aram “the thousand.”
5 tn Or perhaps, “when he had tasted” (cf. NASB) in the sense of officially initiating the commencement of the banquet. The translation above seems preferable, however, given the clear evidence of inebriation in the context (cf. also CEV “he got drunk and ordered”).
6 tn Or “ancestor”; or “predecessor” (also in vv. 11, 13, 18). The Aramaic word translated “father” can on occasion denote these other relationships.
7 tn Or “taken.”
8 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
9 sn Making use of sacred temple vessels for an occasion of reveling and drunkenness such as this would have been a religious affront of shocking proportions to the Jewish captives.
10 tc The present translation reads וְכַסְפָּא (vÿkhaspa’, “and the silver”) with Theodotion and the Vulgate. Cf. v. 2. The form was probably accidentally dropped from the Aramaic text by homoioteleuton.
11 tn Aram “the temple of the house of God.” The phrase seems rather awkward. The Vulgate lacks “of the house of God,” while Theodotion and the Syriac lack “the house.”
12 tc The Greek version of Theodotion lacks the repetition of מְנֵא (mÿne’, cf. NAB).
13 tc The Aramaic word is plural. Theodotion has the singular (cf. NAB “
14 tn Or “word” or “event.” See HALOT 1915 s.v. מִלָּה.
15 tn The Aramaic term מְנֵא (mÿne’) is a noun referring to a measure of weight. The linkage here to the verb “to number” (Aram. מְנָה, mÿnah) is a case of paronomasia rather than strict etymology. So also with תְּקֵל (tÿqel) and פַרְסִין (farsin). In the latter case there is an obvious wordplay with the name “Persian.”
16 sn Peres (פְּרֵס) is the singular form of פַרְסִין (pharsin) in v. 25.
17 tn Aram “Belshazzar spoke.”
18 tn Aram “king of the Chaldeans.”
19 sn The year was 539