Sermon Tone Analysis

Wenstrom Bible Ministries

Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom

Thursday November 15, 2012

www.wenstrom.org

Daniel: Daniel 5:5- As Belshazzar And His Guests Were Drinking, They Saw The Fingers Of A Human Hand Writing On The Wall Of The Banquet Hall

Lesson # 146

Please turn in your Bibles to Daniel 5:1.

Daniel 5:1 King Belshazzar threw an enormous banquet for a thousand of his nobles.

He even drank wine excessively directly in front of the thousand.

2 Belshazzar issued an order while under the influence of the wine causing the gold and silver articles to be brought in which Nebuchadnezzar, his great-grandfather caused to be confiscated from the temple, which was in Jerusalem, in order that the king, his nobles as well as his wives and in addition his concubines could drink with them.

3 Therefore, the gold and silver articles were brought in, which were confiscated from the temple, which was God’s house, which was in Jerusalem so that the king, his nobles as well as his wives and in addition his concubines could drink with them.

4 They drank wine while they praised gods composed of gold as well as silver, bronze, iron, wood and in addition stone.

(My translation)

Daniel 5:5 Suddenly the fingers of a man’s hand emerged and began writing opposite the lampstand on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace, and the king saw the back of the hand that did the writing.

(NASB95)

“Suddenly” is composed of the preposition b- (בְּ־) (beh) and its object is the third person feminine singular pronominal suffix hî(ʾ) (הִיא) (hee), which is followed by the feminine singular noun šā∙ʿā(h) (שָׁעָה) (shaw-aw´).

The preposition b- is a temporal marker meaning “during” referring to the period of time in which Belshazzar and his guests were drinking wine while praising the gods composed of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood and stone.

The third person feminine singular pronominal suffix hî(ʾ) means “this” since it is functioning like a demonstrative pronoun.

It is pointing out the noun šā∙ʿā(h), which means “time” since it refers to a period of time in which Belshazzar and his guests were drinking wine while praising the gods composed of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood and stone.

Therefore, this expression is identifying “when” the fingers of a human hand appeared to Belshazzar and his guests and started writing on the wall of the banquet hall.

It denotes that this took place “when” Belshazzar and his guests were drinking wine while praising the gods composed of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood and stone.

The fingers of a human hand appeared to Belshazzar and his guests during the indefinite period of time when they were drinking wine while praising the gods composed of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood and stone.

“Emerged” is the third person feminine plural peʿal (Hebrew: qal) active perfect form of the verb nep̄ǎq (נְפַק) (nef-ak´), which is used with reference of course to the fingers of a human being’s hand indicating that they “appeared” to Belshazzar and his guests while they were partying.

“And began writing opposite the lampstand on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace” is a temporal clause since the conjunction wa, “and” is a temporal marker meaning that it is a marker of an event as taking simultaneously with another event.

Therefore, this conjunction denotes that these fingers of a human hand were writing “as” they appeared to Belshazzar and his guests indicating that when these fingers appeared they were writing on the wall of the banquet hall.

“Opposite the lampstand” is composed of the preposition lĕ (לְ) (leh) which is followed by the preposition qǒḇēl (קֳבֵל) (kob-ale´), which together are translated “opposite” and then we have the feminine singular noun něḇ∙rešā(h) (נֶבְרְשָׁה) (neb-reh-shaw´), “the lampstand.”

The noun něḇ∙rešā(h) means “lampstand” and more than likely refers to the golden lampstand which in the Hebrew was identified by the noun menô∙rā(h) (מְנוֹרָה) (men-o-raw´).

This lampstand was composed of a base, a stem-shaft and holder for the lamp.

Some commentators argue like Leupold that this could not be the golden lampstand taken from Solomon’s temple since it was a foreign word.

HAL considers this a Persian loan word and BDB an Aramaic loan word.

Though the noun něḇ∙rešā(h) is a loan word from one of these two languages, it would not rule out the possibility that it is referring to the golden lampstand confiscated by Nebuchadnezzar from Solomon’s temple here in Daniel 5:5.

It would not be unusual for Daniel to use either an Aramaic or Persian loan word here in Daniel 5:5 to describe the golden lampstand from Solomon’s temple.

The word used for lampstand is an unusual one and may be a Persian loan word.

As such it likely represents a distinct, singular lampstand, perhaps of a special type.

Daniel 2:4-7:7:28 was written for the benefit of the Gentiles since it is written in Aramaic which was the lingua franca in that day.

So it would not be unusual for Daniel to use an Aramaic loan word to describe this golden lampstand since Daniel 5:5 appears in a section which was for the benefit of the Gentiles who spoke in Aramaic with regards to commerce and government.

Further indicating that the noun něḇ∙rešā(h) is referring to the golden lampstand confiscated by Nebuchadnezzar from Solomon’s temple is that Daniel 5:2 records Belshazzar ordering the gold and silver vessels from Solomon’s temple be transported to the banquet he was throwing for his nobles.

Now, in Daniel 5:5, the noun něḇ∙rešā(h) is the object of the prepositions lĕ and qǒḇēl with the former functioning as a marker of direction indicating that the wall, which was written on by the fingers of a human hand, stood in the direction of the golden lampstand from Solomon’s temple.

Here it denotes that this wall stood facing “toward” the golden lampstand.

The preposition lĕ is prefixed to the preposition qǒḇēl, which means “in front of” indicating that this wall was “in front of” the golden lampstand.

Therefore, these two words indicate that the wall which was being written on by the human hand which appeared to Belshazzar and his guests during their party was facing “directly in front of” the golden lampstand which was brought to the party per the orders of Belshazzar.

“And the king saw the back of the hand that did the writing” is a result clause since the conjunction wa, “and” is a marker of result meaning that it is introducing a statement which is the direct result of the previous statement.

Therefore, this conjunction denotes that “as a result of” the fingers of a human being’s hand writing on the plaster of the wall of Belshazzar’s palace directly in front of the lampstand, the king saw the back of this hand as it was writing on the wall.

“Saw” is the masculine singular peʿal (Hebrew: qal) active participle form of the verb ḥǎzā(h) (חֲזָה) (khaz-aw´), which means “to observe” in the sense of inspecting and looking carefully with attention to details for the purpose of arriving at a judgment.

The king carefully inspected the hand as it was writing on the wall with attention to details for the purpose of arriving at a judgment as to determine the meaning of what it was writing.

“The back of the hand” is composed of the masculine singular construct form of the noun pǎs (פַּס) (pas), “the back of” which is modifying the feminine singular form of the noun yǎḏ (יַד) (yad), “the hand.”

The noun yǎḏ is in the singular and means “hand” and refers to the human hand which appeared to Belshazzar and his guests while they were partying and was writing as it appeared to them.

The noun pǎs means “palm” referring to the palm of the hand (LEB) and does not mean “back” of the hand (NET).

Some interpret the word as referring to the back of the hand since the king would have only seen the back of the hand while it was writing but they fail to see the implication of the word meaning “palm,” which is that Belshazzar and his guests were looking to see the body which the hand was attached to.

So they observed carefully to view this hand as it was writing while simultaneously attempting to find out what it was attached to.

This is indicated by the meaning of the verb ḥǎzā(h), which as we noted meant “to observe” in the sense of inspecting and looking carefully with attention to details for the purpose of arriving at a judgment.

Daniel 5:5 During this time, the fingers of a human hand appeared while writing on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace, directly in front of the lampstand so that the king observed the palm of the hand which was writing.

(My translation)

Daniel tells the reader here in verse 5 that during the time when Belshazzar and his guests were drinking while praising the gods of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood and stone, the fingers of a human hand appeared to the king and his guests.

When the fingers of this hand appeared, they were writing on the plaster of one of the walls in the banquet room of the king’s palace.

The hand appeared on the wall which was directly in front of the golden lampstand which was confiscated from Solomon’s temple in Jerusalem in 605 B.C. by Nebuchadnezzar and was stored by him in the treasury of the temple of Marduk in the city of Babylon.

As a result of the hand writing on the wall which was lit by the golden lampstand, Belshazzar observed carefully the palm of the hand which was writing so as to determine what person or human being it was attached to.

Daniel 5:6 tells us that the king’s face grew pale and became petrified when he saw that the hand was not attached to any human being.

The mention of the location of the wall in which the hand was writing is important since it tells the reader that the writing appeared on a portion of the wall of the banquet room which had the most light.

Daniel 5:25 reveals that what was written by the hand was “MENĒ, MENĒ, TEKĒL, UPHARSIN.”

In Daniel 5:26-28, Daniel tells the king what this means.